The Life We All Deserve v2.0
an H/HR story.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Everything proprietary belongs to JK Rowling.
***Thanks to my amazing Beta, Mad Library Scientist for helping me iron out the chapters
Part 1: Harry
Chapter 1: It might have been.
Harry Potter had always felt better when he was up flying on his broom. The freedom he felt whenever he was up in the air would never fail to send shivers up his spine with giddiness. The darkness of the night under cloud cover was just right for this clandestine journey. After they had arrived at the border via secured portkey, they opted to fly; the other modes of transportation were heavily monitored by the Ministry. They had been in flight for over a half an hour now, the quick stop in London was to eat and check their route for any trouble. He looked to his right to check his companions and was satisfied that Sirius had no problem keeping up with the rest of the group. Ron and Ginny were in their element; he didn't have to worry about those two. Lastly, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Hestia Jones rounded up their number to six; the two Order members were their escort for the night. Harry turned his attention back to the front and concentrated on controlling his broom, making sure he kept the agreed upon speed. He held his face passive as he scanned the horizon for their destination and sure enough, just as they zipped past farmlands, he saw the darkened silhouette of his beloved school. Hogwarts was up ahead as if summoning him to hurry up and he could feel the relief as it coursed through his veins.
Harry couldn't wait. Soon he would see her again.
Just as he smiled at the anticipation, he heard a frantic shout from his rear. He whipped his head around, careful to keep his balance on his broom, just in time as Kingsley and Hestia aimed spells at incoming dark figures at breakneck speeds.
"Wands out Harry! They found us!" Sirius bellowed as he started sending hexes at the black-robed figures that were quickly gaining on them at all sides.
Harry extended his arm, wand in hand from its holster; he sent a Reducto straight at the Death Eater closest to him at the same time he dodged a hex coming fast his way. Using his Seeker skills, he maneuvered his broom to zigzag back and helped his companions; Ron and Ginny worked in tandem as they defended themselves. Just as soon as they thought they had the upper hand, a new swarm of Death Eaters descended on them.
"Get to the school as fast as you can! We'll cover you three!" Sirius commanded.
"No!" Harry yelled, "I'm staying here with you!"
A volley of hexes coming their way interrupted their argument to a halt. The three younger ones refused to leave their escorts; they fought fast and hard. Ron screamed when an unknown spell grazed him on the shoulder. Harry tried to cover his best friend, but he too was overwhelmed. Kingsley, Hestia, and Sirius kept the hexes going, but the Death Eaters numbers just seem to double in front of their eyes.
Just as they all thought they had all failed and were going to be either killed or captured, multiple hexes from the rear were took out Death Eaters swiftly like flies.
Harry saw more than a dozen riders in brooms zoom into the dogfight. He noticed that they did not wore robes but a black body suit of some kind. They glided noiselessly on air and sent rapid fire hexes at their assailants, the Death Eaters plummeted to their deaths while some exploded to bits and pieces midair. Harry allowed himself gawk for a few moments at these new arrivals; he was mesmerized by their formations and the movements that were completely in-sync as if they could predict each other's actions.
"All right there, Harry?"
Harry was surprised as a rider pulled by his side. The other man wore a helmet that was covering half of his face, in an instant, the visor turned from completely black to invisible.
"Neville!"Harry breathed his shock.
"Good to see you, mate." Neville smiled, he nodded towards the looming structure of Hogwarts ahead, "We'll take care of the rest from here, you all go on ahead; Professor McGonagall is waiting for you. The Creeveys will lead you all towards the balcony by the hospital wing to land safely. See you later."
Without another word, Neville pulled up, and that was when Harry noticed they were free from their attackers and the rest of the riders circled above them.
Harry, still in shock, barely heard what Neville said let alone understand any of it at all. His brain hadn't pieced together the fact that one of the fighters who just saved them was his shy dorm mate, Neville Longbottom. He wanted to know who the other riders were, but before he could do just that, Neville had gone and joined another group that flew just above them. Then he heard a sound almost like the rumbling of thunder coupled with a faint pop. He looked up at the direction of the sound, and in the next moment there was a flash of light in the sky and as it faded an opening appeared in its place (later he found out it was a two-way portal). Harry watched as it rapidly opened and parted the clouds to a few meters, and the rest of the riders including Neville flew towards it, as the last broom made it through the opening, it promptly closed and the night sky was still again.
Sirius hovered on his broom and shook him back to reality. "Come on pup; we can ask questions later," Sirius said to his shocked godson. He urged Harry on towards the school.
Harry allowed himself to think as he flew with his group. Ron already started to look pale and uncomfortable judging by how he favored his left side, but his sister stayed close to support him. Silence prevailed as they kept up with their escorts.
As they neared, the Hogwarts, Harry saw the air shimmer, and he realized the area around the castle was under a dome-like shield, encompassing not only the school structure but the surrounding land and the town of Hogsmeade as well.
One of the two riders who flew with them raised a hand as he neared the area near the dome and in a moment, a circular opening emerged wide enough to admit them all. He then led them to the castle, moving towards the balcony next to the hospital wing while the other rider hung back but joined him as soon as they passed the castle walls and the dome closed up after them. As they drew close to the balcony, it started to widen, and the stone railing extended itself out to resemble something like a short landing strip.
Harry watched as the two riders neared the now elongating stone piece and how they decreased their speed then simultaneously landed then walked towards a figure just inside the now modified balcony. He saw their brooms shrink to matchstick-size and it few to a holster attached to their forearms revealed as the sleeves of their tight flight suit retracted up and a cloak started to form from around the rider's shoulders. The visors of their helmets retracted up, and he finally recognized Colin Creevey as the one leading their group and the other rider, his younger brother Dennis.
"They are all here, Professor," Colin reported and then stood aside with his brother slightly on McGonagall's right side.
Harry turned, and relief flooded him when all six of his original group landed safely by his side. He waited for Sirius to stand by his side before they made their way to the formidable Hogwarts Headmistress.
"Glad you all made it." Minerva McGonagall said as a form of welcome.
Harry almost laughed at the curt greeting from his former Transfiguration professor in her Scottish brogue. They all moved towards her.
"Good evening, Professor." He greeted the witch with a grin.
"Black." Minerva nodded towards Sirius and the man bowed gallantly.
"Good to see you, Minerva." Sirius made his way to her side and offered an arm as the Headmistress finished greeting the rest of their companions. She threw Ron a concerned look when she spotted blood on his left shoulder. Minerva took the extended arm and led them in with the Creevey brothers coming up the back.
"I have to apologize in advance; there is no time to talk right now." Minerva started as she walked briskly beside Harry and Sirius, she abruptly turned to Ron who still cradled his left arm to his chest; she nodded towards the hospital wing. "You had better get that shoulder looked at right away, Mr. Weasley. It's best done right now because Poppy might not have the time to heal you later." Ron nodded and so with Ginny in tow, the siblings turned towards the doors of the hospital wing to get to the mediwitch to see to his injury. Minerva shifted to the rest of them, "Dennis here, will take the rest of you to the Great Hall for your supper."
Harry sensed that something was up, "What is going on, Professor?"
Minerva kept walking; she shook her head, "As I said earlier, I don't have time to explain," she paused for a bit and sighed when she saw the determined look on Harry's face. "If you must know, then you will have to walk with me; I have a lot to see to." She extricated herself from Sirius and started to lead them to the flight of stairs.
"Where are we going, Minerva?" Sirius kept up with the witch when she hastened her steps. Harry, Kingsley, and Hestia hurried up as well.
"Room of Requirement," Minerva stated without breaking a step. "It's the rendezvous point for tonight's evacuation."
That did not make sense to two of her companions while the other two, namely Shacklebolt and Jones, looked stunned.
"What evacuations?" Sirius demanded.
Minerva kept on going up towards her destination, "The muggle-born camps, Sirius. It's the last one."
"What? What muggle-born camps?" Harry stood rooted on the step.
"You're the one rescuing them, Minerva?" Kingsley clarified.
Minerva stopped sighed; she nodded towards Kingsley, "Yes, we are." She emphasized the "we" in her statement then turned to Harry, "The Mudblood Relocation Program, Mr. Potter. The Death Eater-run ministry had put up four of them, and we are raiding the last one tonight." She then restarted climbing the stairs while Harry now hurried up to catch her. "I know you have been away and since I won't assume you have all been privy to what has been going on around here, it's understandable that you will not be able to know of all this."
She sensed that Harry still needed clarification, Minerva tried to explain further, "We knew that your arrival back in Britain would cause a bit of stir among Riddle's minions, so we took advantage of that distraction. Obviously, I have to make appearances, so..." she wisely drifted off and gave him a stern look.
Something clicked in Harry's mind, "So Neville and the rest of the riders?"
"Yes, Mr. Potter." Minerva confirmed, "As part of their cover, they pretended to make your safe journey their priority. The Death Eaters are all focused on getting you captured, I suppose. Your decision to come back at this time had been a boon to our cause. This particular camp was proving to be difficult to attack, after the simultaneous raids of the other three these past few weeks, the Ministry had it heavily defended," she stopped as a student approached her at the seventh-floor landing, "Is everything in place, Ms. Bones?"
Susan Bones nodded as she gave Harry a welcoming smile before turning to her Headmistress, "Yes, Professor. All we need right now is the room."
Minerva looked pleased, "Thank you Ms. Bones," she turned and walked ahead.
Susan fell into step next to Harry, "Nice to have you back, Harry."
Harry smiled back, "It's good to see you, Susan. It seems I have been gone far too long."
Susan chuckled, "You'll be all right. You'll adjust like everyone else." She patted his shoulder before hurrying into the room that just appeared under McGonagall's request. Harry and the rest went in after Susan and walked in as it was forming into what looked like a hospital ward, with rows of beds emerging along the length on opposite sides save for a few meters where a ten-foot circle appeared on the floor with the Hogwarts seal right smack in the middle. The ring glowed as a series of runes started forming in and around the rim.
Harry stopped and stared and before he could open his mouth to ask a question about what he just witnessed, the door behind them opened, and people started pouring in in groups. Younger students, mostly girls came in wearing aprons similar to what Madam Pomfrey wore all the time, established themselves in even numbers and waited as older students came in, and one by one, the older group each took two younger students down the row upon row of beds. Next, house elves popped into the room and hurried down with supplies to stock the short shelves that appeared in intervals along the aisles supposedly so that each bed had easy access to such supplies. One elf almost landed right on Harry's feet in his haste with a load of bandages piled up in his arms nearly twice his height. The house elf threw Harry a quick 'sorry, sir!' before he hurried towards Susan and Hannah Abbot who seem to head the whole student contingent. Later a much older group, he recognized as Healers because of their garb, arrived with Madam Pomfrey who was greeted by McGonagall.
"How is everything in your end, Poppy?"
Poppy Pomfrey nodded, "We have a complete inventory of potions and such. I have others from the village offering to help, so I have them prepare a place to receive the evacuees, the ones that aren't physically injured. A few of them are Mind Healer's in training, so Healer McGregor is getting them organized in the village, while some first years volunteered to look after the displaced children. Hopefully, we will not have a lot of them like the last time."
"Splendid!" Minerva nodded in satisfaction. "The elves have reported that they have all the food and other supplies ready. The transporters are also on standby. All we have to do now is wait."
Sirius and Harry approached the two witches, "Mind if you explain to us further what is going on right now?" Sirius asked his former head of house directly. Madam Pomfrey excused herself from them and went towards her junior helpers waiting for her instructions.
Minerva looked like she was collecting all her patience as she stared at the two but since there was a time she decided to tell them, "As I have said earlier, we have been rescuing all the Muggleborns kept in the camps for the past month. The Ministry had them all rounded up by the Muggleborn Registration Commission, headed by that vile Umbridge and placed in concentration-like camps all over Britain. There were rumors that there were plans of massive executions, and that had been a worry for all of us here. We rescued the ones from three of them. It was imperative that we attack them in succession for fear that they retaliate by killing off the prisoners." She turned to Harry, "The teams we send to these raids are DA members, but they call the group Hogwarts Guardians now." She said with pride, "They operate under the radar, no one suspects students to do these daring raids, and it had worked to our advantage. They trained endlessly primarily for this purpose. Remus Lupin stepped in and helped, but they mostly came up with their strategy."
"You really mean Granger's strategy, right Minerva? The kids are even saying that HG, in fact, stands for Hermione Granger."
They all turned to the gruff voice as Alastor Moody walked into the Room of Requirements with Bill and Charlie Weasley in tow with four unknown men who Harry thought were built enough to look like Aurors. Moody glared at them in greeting before turning back to the Hogwarts Headmistress, "Your Gryffindor Princess deserves all the credit due after all."
Minerva glared back at the battle-scarred Auror, but a ghost of a smile appeared briefly before it disappeared and only the sheer pride in her eyes remained she allowed everyone to see. "And Alastor here and his boys also help," she added as if to avoid being accused of playing favoritism against the group that just arrived. Moody just snorted in response.
'Gryffindor Princess?'
Harry snapped back to the present from his musings when someone finally turned to him, for all this time he was left dumbstruck at Moody's interruption.
"Hi there Harry!" Bill greeted the young man with a broad smile, and he shook hands with Sirius and then with Kingsley and Hestia. Charlie grinned and patted Harry on the shoulder before greeting everyone else.
Just then the Weasley twins walked in and zeroed in on Harry with their boisterous greeting. Sirius grinned when his best friend came up behind the redheaded twins.
"Moony!" Sirius swept Remus Lupin in a tight hug.
"How are you Padfoot?" Remus patted his friend's back, he smiled and moved towards Harry after he escaped from the twins clutches, "How are you cub?"
Harry grinned and engulfed the werewolf in a fierce hug, "I'm all right Moony." Remus smiled back and pulled him to his side. "There will be time to talk, but right now we are in the middle of something time sensitive."
Harry nodded his understanding, but questions were swirling around his head that his curiosity is bursting at its seams, but he reined it in. They had chatted for a minute before they felt the air around them stir, and a figure Harry recognized as that of a rider from earlier because of the body suit, appeared in the middle of the rune circle. The visor blinked invisible to reveal Roger Davies, a Ravenclaw who was a year older than him stepped towards Remus and Moody.
"We're all in place, Sir," he says simply to Remus who nodded his satisfaction. Davies then handed Remus and Moody each a three-inch sized disc and then gave Bill a few more that the Curse Breaker distributed to his brothers and four more who looked like Aurors that came in behind Remus.
"Portkeys?" Sirius asked.
Remus nodded, "We'll be right back."
Harry stepped forward, "I want to go as well. I want to help."
"You can't, Potter," Moody barked, "You did not train with them. You might just end up a liability instead. Lupin will explain later." He moved towards the circle where Davies was waiting for them, "Let's go." He orders the ones holding a disc, and they all walked into the rune-rimmed ring. He nodded to the Headmistress, his fake eye moved around dizzyingly. "Get them ready, Minerva." In a flash, the group disappeared from the room.
Harry suddenly felt incompetent. He yearned to help; he was already trained to fight. The dismissal earlier from Moody gnawed at his heart. These Muggleborns got quarried because of Voldemort's rise to power. He was supposed to stop the Dark Lord. With nothing left to do, he stood by McGonagall and waited. The room was incredibly quiet; he looked around to see nervous anticipation all around him.
The calm before the storm.
It was not a long wait; barely a few minutes had passed and then people started appearing inside the circle with a house elf holding on to two at a time. They were hurriedly ushered out of the ring by the older students as the elves disappeared back within the circle. The elves seemed to be the way of transport as Harry saw a few of them repeatedly appearing with different evacuees. The men and women taken into the room all looked starved, tired, and dressed in equally tired looking clothes. Most sported injuries of varying degrees of urgency that were all sent to designated areas supervised by Healers with their assigned assistants. Some elves would appear with crying children clutched tight in their arms who were scooped up by the students and sent off to the arms of women who all came in from a door magically appearing on one side of the room.
For what seemed to be hours but were in truth only mere minutes, an endless number of magicals started to fill the seemingly limitless Room of Requirement, the frenzy of activities looked disheveled at first glance but there was an almost military-like precision as for how the arrivals were handled. Stationed by the rune circle, A Healer did the patient triage; she sent injured magicals to the Healers while the healthy but clearly distraught went to the village women on standby with blankets and sustenance before they were whisked out through the other door. Then gradually the arrivals came in intervals until it slowed to a mere trickle then followed by the now empty handed transporter house-elves arrived in groups who did not stop to rest but instead, scampered away to help. The healthier prisoners were all taken out of the Room of Requirement via the magical door to the village thus the only ones left were the injured as they got treated.
With bated breath, Harry watched the circle when the elves stopped appearing; he almost screamed when one of the Aurors that left with Remus and Moody, arrived with an elf supporting the bloodied large man up almost effortlessly. Madam Pomfrey flew to his side and levitated the injured man to a nearest empty bed. Not a minute later Charlie and one of the riders from earlier appeared and that initiated the arrival of the rest of that group.
Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan noticed him first in the room, and both boys grinned at their approach.
"Good to see you, Harry." Dean slapped Harry's arm good-naturedly before giving him a hug.
"Didn't think we'll ever see you again, mate." Seamus chuckled as he shook Harry's hand firmly.
Harry first felt great relief when all the Weasley brothers walked out of the circle and then with all their helmets coming off the Guardians, Harry started recognizing his former schoolmates. Some sported wounds and bruises and the occasional scratch on the face (or in Seamus' case, soot), but nothing too alarming.
Harry saw smiles from the rest of the Guardians. There was Davies from earlier who stood by Padma Patil and her twin Parvati. Lavender waved as she plopped into a couch that magically materialized from thin air with Seamus taking the seat next to her. Daphne Greengrass gave Harry a small smile as she took her place by Dean's side. There were Terry Boot and Lee Jordan who was now near the Weasley twins with Angelina, Katie, and Alicia. Ernie MacMillan edged towards Parvati while Justin Finch-Fletchley perched on the arm of the chair Cho sat on. He was surprised to see a handful of Slytherins in the group as well, Zabini being one of them. They all greeted him warmly save for a few cool ones mostly from the Slytherin boys. They all settled down and were slowly getting scanned for injuries from the Healers or fussed on by Madam Pomfrey; no one responded unusually, it was as if this was a regular occurrence for them.
After a couple of minutes of friendly conversation with his housemates, Harry finally noticed someone was missing. He turned his head just in time to see Moody appear with the other Auror; alarms sounded in his head when Minerva and Madam Pomfrey approached him with worried looks on their faces. Both suddenly gasped after Moody leaned and whispered something to them before they ran out of the room with two Healers hot on their heels.
"Where is Remus?" Sirius demanded of Moody, he felt that something was not right with that scene.
Harry approached the seasoned Auror and his godfather, "And where is Neville? He was with you; I am sure of that." When Moody looked at him with a guarded expression he turned to his friends; he saw Seamus slightly flinch while Lavender's eyes widened."
"What happened?" Harry enquired, "Did something happen to Remus?"
Sirius rounded on the old Auror, "Moody?" his tone sounded menacing.
Moody sighed, and at that, the HG members immediately left the room. "Remus is okay; he is unscathed." Moody still avoided Harry's eyes.
"Neville, then?" Harry asked again.
"Longbottom is fine, and before you ask, Lovegood is alright as well."
Harry suddenly went through a mental roll call, in the time he arrived he still hadn't seen her. He paled considerably, "Hermione," he almost breathed her name. Panic rapidly rose in his chest; he waited for Moody's response to his silent inquiry, but the man wouldn't meet his gaze. Exasperated, Harry could not help but scream his dread at the older wizard.
"IS SHE ALRIGHT!?"
Moody gave him a hard glare at his outburst but could not sustain it; he shook his head, "No, she isn't."
Moody sighed heavily and pulled out his hip flask; he took a long sip before finally faced Harry directly. "Tonight, she went up against three Death Eaters at the same time on her own. So far this is the third time in a month that she exhausted her magical core. Mark my words, Poppy will be hopping mad at her if she is lucky enough to pull through this time."
Harry felt like getting sick to his stomach, "Lucky enough? What do you mean by that?"
"She has a death wish, Harry." Moody said with no compunction, not that he was otherwise expected to be, his tone of voice firm, daring Harry to argue. "I think she had been trying to end her life from the time of that incident happened years ago." He sighed again, either to collect his thoughts or buy some time. "I don't blame her, but it's hard for the people around her who are rooting for her to survive it. The thing I admire about her the most is her obstinacy. That she will not go down alone; she will take as many of those murdering bastards down with her as she can, and believe me she already had. The Hogwarts Guardians are not just a school club like your DA." His shoulders slumped the first time that night, "This war had asked of all of us way too much." He shook his head, "Far too much than we can ever afford."
Harry's heard enough; he couldn't understand a word the man was saying. No, he refused to listen to the man at all, it's not true. Hermione is not like that at all. He was saying it as if he'd given up at Hermione.
'No.'
'Never!'
'Not Hermione!'
'Not my Hermione!'
Angrily, Harry made for the door to get to his best friend, but Fred and George jumped in front of him to stop him from going through the door.
"Let me through," he glared at the twins.
"I'm sorry, Harry. Even if we let you out of here, it will be impossible for you to get to her." Fred sadly informed him.
George nodded, "Unless you wear a badge she created, you will not be able to see her, let alone get near her."
Harry jerked away from them, "What badge?" He seethed his irritation at the hindrance the two insisted on him. Harry suddenly remembered seeing something on the Guardians earlier, what could pass for a badge; it was oval shaped almost the size of a galleon with a smooth blue stone in the middle. Each of them had it pinned on the left side of the chest.
George saw the recognition in Harry's eyes and hastened to explain. "When Hermione took over the DA, she fashioned a badge that works as a communication device among other things. She also enchanted them enough to ensure the safety of the wearer. Each badge is keyed to the person who wears it so that it couldn't be taken instead work as a personal tracker. It's a long story, to be honest, it would take the whole night to explain, that is how complicated it is. Trust Hermione to cover all the bases, but the most important feature is that it allows entry to their heavily warded headquarters. Remus and McGonagall each have one for obvious reasons; she's the Headmistress while Remus trained them in defense, still trains them actually. The only way you can gain access is if you are invited by a member, and they take you with them, as in they are holding on to you. Other than that, you wait in the conference room just like everyone else."
"Best wait for Remus or McGonagall. There is also Neville who is the leader or Luna, who always sticks by her side," Fred offers. "If you talk to them about seeing her, they might be able to arrange a meeting."
There was a long pause as Harry simply gaped at them.
"Just don't expect the same Hermione, Harry." George warned him with a pained voice, "She changed a lot since you guys left."
Harry stood there silent as they talked to him. Confusion coupled with denial ran through his head in a loop.
'How can this be?'
"What happened? I don't understand, how can she be any different?" Harry asked the twins as Sirius came up to his side. His godfather reached and gripped his shoulder in an attempt to calm him down.
"We didn't witness it, Harry," Fred told him, his eyes trained on the floor, "It was Remus and Neville who got there and found her. They are the people you want to talk to; they can tell you what happened that night."
.
.
"Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, "It might have been." ― Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
.
Chapter Beta: Mad Library Scientist
