Notes:
Everything belongs to JK Rowling. I'm just playing with her world.
Thank you to my wonderful beta for her invaluable work. Margaret, you are precious.
Although there's death in this fic, I tried to keep it light. It is a piece for a Halloween Fest after all.
Thank you Strictly Dramione Team for organizing the SD Halloween Fest, special thanks to Claire for creating an amazing cover picture for my fic.
Chapter 1: The Promise
Life is ephemeral like a spring flower. It's born fragile and delicate. At first, there's just a blossom then it grows into a beautiful display of petals, stems and vibrant green leaves, fertile with pollen. It grows strong but remains delicate whereas it can easily be wiped out by a storm or by the unforgiving stomp of a running boot. Life is just like that. In a fleeting moment, unexpectedly, there's nothing left. A Killing Curse, an illness, the wrong potion, an accident, time, they could all claim anybody's last breath. After that, there's only a corpse in a grave, the memory of the living the sole proof that someone really existed.
A lonely tombstone on top of a gentle hill was all that was left of Hermione Granger.
In her short life, there had been laughter with friends, books in front of a lit fireplace, pages flipped by her warm hand, hot tea, and a cat on her lap. In her almost eighteen years on this earth, there was also war and loss but these as well had rendered her life a miracle worth living.
Her grave had been unquiet since her passing. Many people came and left, day by day. Some visited often and stayed a while to talk to the cold stone, much like Harry. Others couldn't bare more than a glance; Ron was among them. Her parents never went at all, oblivious to the fact that they even had a daughter and maybe it had been for the best.
There had been one wizard who visited her every day though. Each time he brought a red rose for her, picking up the old one and replacing it with a fresh one. Day after day, he walked uphill to the headstone. Today was no different.
The wind lashed at his black cloak and the autumn rain dampened his blond hair. His grey eyes were fixed upon the cold marble of the tomb, just where her name had been carved in. He knew that gravestone by heart. He knew every little imperfection on the smooth surface of the white slab. He recognized the little chip that had broken off the top of it when he had aimed his wand at it, cursing at the sky in a vain attempt to deal with his grief. He gazed at the blood stain that could not be washed away on the base, where his fist had met the hard surface in anger. He observed the little enchanted bluebell flames that forever danced around her name. He never spoke with her anymore. In the beginning, he had spent hours on end yelling, crying or simply whispering to her, but the one-way conversation had quickly grown heavy on his heart.
He picked up yesterday's rose and placed a new one on the wet grass. The wizard gently touched the cold, slippery granite and turned. His eyes narrowed as he saw another wizard standing in the unforgiving rain.
His face was half hidden by the neck of his coat, pulled up to protect him from the wind, but Draco would recognize those crooked old glasses everywhere.
"How long have you been staring at my arse, Potter?"
"Since third year at least," Harry chuckled as he walked uphill to meet him.
Draco scowled at him for the inappropriate behaviour on a grave site.
They shook hands and briefly exchanged greetings; then they both turned to the stone, observing it for a long minute.
"I still can't believe she died to save my life." The tallest wizard hissed.
"I can hardly believe you've been friends since fourth year. I do understand why she did it though." Harry sniffled and adjusted his glasses. After an initial denial, Harry had accepted that his best friend was gone.
"For that matter, I still can't make sense of the fact that you and I are friends, Potter."
"True that!"
They then stood there in silence, replaying long lost memories in their minds.
Draco turned his gaze to Harry, his face contracted in a fierce and determined mask. "I need to know why. I'll find a way to bring her back, I swear."
Harry met his eyes, the cold green of his irises softened at the thought of having his best friend back, but he knew it was impossible. "She would want you to live your life fully. Don't waste it trying something impossible."
Draco's hands balled in fists at his sides. He was ready to curse at Harry and ask him how he could be okay with Granger being dead, but he just silently stood there.
"Are you familiar with the Deathly Hallows?" Harry asked, continuing after Malfoy nodded, "The resurrection stone was in my possession once. Death's very stone. It didn't really bring back anybody. If that didn't work, nothing can. Live and cherish the gift Hermione bestowed onto you, Draco. She wouldn't want us to miss out on life for her."
Draco's head started spinning as he thought of all the rituals he could have tried with Death's stone. He grabbed Harry's arm, perhaps a little too harshly and he looked straight into his emerald eyes. "Where is it?"
Grimacing at the fingers digging into his cloak and flesh, Harry put his own hand on Draco's, trying to break free. "I lost it. It never worked mate."
Draco shook his head, a little dizzy because of all the machiavellian thinking and he began descending the hill with long unstable strides. "I'll see you at work." That was all he whispered to Harry.
Harry took off his glasses, stroking the bridge of his nose where his spectacles always dug little indentations. He sighed and wondered if the Ministry kept a vial of Liquid Luck in stock that he could steal.
His day had begun in the worst way possible.
His alarm hadn't gone off so he arrived at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement fifteen minutes late, deserving the reprimanding look from Robards. The young Auror had to go to Knockturn Alley to break up a pub brawl and was punched in the guts by one of the wizards involved. On his way back he had stopped at a coffee shop to get the caffeine he had been longing for since he woke up, but he tripped over the carpet at the very front step of the shop and spilt his cup all over his white Oxford shirt, burning his skin in the process. Thank Merlin for rapid cleaning magic and healing potions but still, it hurt.
On top of it all, Harry's mind was filled with gloomy memories since it was Halloween and the anniversary of his parents' death. It was always a difficult holiday for him.
A knock on his door snapped him out of his misery.
"Hey there, lunch date? I have goodies." A flirty voice proposed. A tall lanky wizard with dark brown slicked back hair smiled at him from the threshold.
Harry cocked his head, confused, putting his glasses back on and focussing on the man's face. There was nothing familiar about it. "Who are you?" He heard some swearing then and the wizard was brusquely pushed inside his office, followed by a very annoyed Draco Malfoy.
"Potter, this is Theodore Nott."
"Call me Theo." He specified taking a seat in front of Harry and smirking at him.
Harry recalled the name of the Slytherin boy from school mainly because of his Death Eater father.
"I brought you lunch. We need to talk." Draco went straight to the point, tossing three ham and cheese sandwiches on the desk. With a wand wave, he closed the door, locking it.
"Not a good time, mate." Harry would have liked to relax a little during his lunch break.
"Hey, it's now or never, sweetheart. My friend's school crush is coming back to life." Theo explained wiggling his eyebrows.
Harry's eyes widened, even more bewildered.
"Nott, stop with the fucking flirting. It's creepy," Draco curled his lips in disgust and finished, looking at Harry, "We need to go through the veil."
Harry's jaw fell open, he was getting more perplexed by the second. He couldn't follow. "I haven't had a single coffee yet today so cut me some slack here, but what the hell are you two talking about?"
Draco's lips parted to speak, but he stuck his tongue to the corner of his mouth, forcing himself not to voice what he really thought about Harry's mental abilities, coffee or not. He inhaled sharply from his nose and offered some more details, recalling all the good reasons why he became friends with the Auror in the first place.
The most important among those reasons was that Harry had always been helplessly loyal to Hermione.
"We are getting Granger back! We must cross the veil barrier."
Harry scratched his head and Theo crossed his arms, leaning back in the chair and assuming a bored stance. "I thought we agreed to let her go, Draco. All these years and you are still trying to find a way." Harry shook his head.
Theo grabbed one of the sandwiches, biting off a big chunk while Malfoy gave him an unapologetic shrug.
"Nobody can go into the Death Chamber aside from a few selected Unspeakables. Especially after Sirius…" Harry trailed off, remembering the way his godfather had died until Theo waved a hand in front of his face, bringing him back into his office. "Anyway, they bumped up the security measures. There's no way. Not even I, as an Auror, possess such clearance."
"It has to be tonight. Nobody but a few guards will be in here." Draco was fidgeting with his family ring, getting more agitated by the second.
"It's very very illegal to enter the Ministry at night with people that don't work here, the wards are-"
"Always the righteous Potter. Let loose for once." Theo interrupted.
"You don't know me!" Harry snapped back.
"You are Harry fucking Potter, everybody knows you. And I had a crush on you back at Hogwarts."
Draco growled at the red tinge in Harry's face, he was getting very uncomfortable.
"Listen. There's a full moon tonight. We have a three-day window between Halloween and the Day of the Dead to get her out."
Harry sighed and leaned back in his chair, adjusting his glasses, pushing them up his nose. "We'll die if we go through the veil."
"Not tonight, Potter. Not if we carry these." Draco tossed three charcoal coloured round stones in front of Harry. A sequence of runes was carved into their surfaces.
Harry took one of them and spun it in his palm. Suddenly he felt a rush in his veins, perceiving the power of that runic inscription. He pondered about it for a while, deciding that he needed to trust Malfoy on this one.
They had been working together for years at the Ministry and he had proved to be a good friend.
Furthermore, he was sure that Draco had always been in love with Hermione and he would have done anything to get her back. "How are you planning on bringing her back to life?" He demanded.
"Don't underestimate the power of runes. You should have paid more attention in school, Potter." Draco showed him another stone, ivory this time. His fingers were wrapped around it but it was enchanted so that nobody could directly touch it.
"Why is he here?" Harry pointed at Theo, who smirked at him.
"He's the one who helped me sort out a way to enchant these stones. His family origins go straight back to the Norse druids and his knowledge on runes is unmatched."
"Viking power and sex appeal…you should have seen me during the ritual, all naked and covered in dragon blood. You would have liked it." Theo winked and Draco scoffed.
"Potter, we will stay after work. I'm sure we both can pretend to be putting in some extra time. Theo will hide in my office. Let's meet at the Department of Mysteries at seven. By then the Ministry will be deserted."
