"Hermione, you just have to understand. I can't go back there."

"Hogwarts has been your home and solace for six years Harry!"

Harry slammed his fist down on the wooden dresser in his room, shaking the mirror and rattling the drawers. "Don't you think I know that!"

Hermione, sympathy swelling in her eyes, reached her hand out to touch him but as she anticipated he pulled away. "You can't push everyone away."

"I don't need you!" he screamed, throwing bottles of ink from the dresser "I can't be there to pick up the pieces every time Ron looks at another girl, Hermione, or to just sit in a classroom pretending like Voldemort isn't trying to kill me. He's within my reach!" He grabbed his suitcase and began stuffing clothes and possessions hastily into it.

He was so angry and yet so scared. Hauntingly, he looked at her almost as if he was begging her to release him from this state. He had been in hiding since Dumbledore died, and now, on the eve of September 1st it was as if he had become a shell of himself. He stopped, slammed the lid of his suitcase down and left the room. Hermione followed him. She was stricken with worry. "We told you we'd be there for you. You're a good wizard Harry but you aren't invincible; those Horcruxes will destroy you. "

He didn't speak; he just fell back against the wall of Grimmauld Place with his suitcase at his feet. He began to sob, a desperate action that he had never displayed to Hermione. Sympathetic as she was, she held back and just sat across from him.

"Harry you cannot defeat Voldemort in this state. You can barely stand up. Hogwarts is the safest place for you right now. Ron and I have been so-"

"Oh shut it Hermione! You have no idea about me! I have spent every second contemplating killing him; just as he killed my parents, Dumbledore and just as that bitch killed Sirius. The Horcruxes are my last chance. I am too alone to have friends Hermione, I have no soul anymore." He stood, reaching for the front door.

"Harry! Harry come back!"

He turned and looked her straight in the eyes with a look of desperation and despair. "I must kill, or be killed and I don't even know if I have anything worth living for." And with that he vanished into the storm.

"What am I then, Harry?" Hermione sat in that same spot in the hallway for hours; listening to the thunder. Little did she know that that would be the last time she saw Harry Potter for a long time.

"Hermione, where's Harry?"

She looked away from Ron's sweet hazel eyes as she said, "He's gone."

He grabbed her arm and spun her body into his. "Gone?"

Almost every student on Platform 9 ¾ began looking at what seemed to be an unlikely pair of lovers. After a second the crowds of students and crying parents formed a pathway around them but their embrace remained train gossip until they reached the halls of Hogwarts.

"Gone. I don't know where he is." She stared at the cobblestone platform unable to hold the tears back any longer.

"Bloody hell!" Ron let go of Hermione so fast she lost her balance and collided with a sinister looking Slytherin, one of Draco Malfoy's bodyguards from the way he was dressed entirely in black.

"You need to be more careful, Miss Granger."

She wanted to say sorry but her mouth just didn't move.

"Oh go fawn after your Master, Goyle." Ron grabbed her hand and pulled him once more toward her. He smelt like cinnamon.

"I was merely being polite Weasley, it is you that needs to learn your manners. And if you're not careful I may just inform Miss Parkinson of your rudeness." He turned and strode away towards a dark clad figure towards the end of the platform.

"They really have changed a lot since Lucius died, that Slytherin crowd. Come on – let's find a compartment and sort this out. You look like a wreck."

She grunted in approval, Harry's disappearance had left her feeling unsafe. Worry was eating away at her heart like a worm gnaws an apple. He should never have run off like he did. He could never find and destroy all the Horcruxes by himself. It was more than probable that he could already be dead. With that thought, she took an intake of breath and Ron looked at her strangely. She kept her head down and kept walking through the crowd until they found an empty carriage.

"So what happened?"

"He left Ron, what more is there to say? I begged him to return to Hogwarts but nothing could deter him. I don't even know what to think anymore."

"How the bloody hell does he think he'll find all those Horcruxes on his own?"

"He's never liked accepting help, let alone asking for it."

"Well he didn't have to bloody ask with you and me did he! We offered and then he gets all depressed and buggers off without us."

"It was foolish, but he's scared. What more can we do?"

"Leave. Chase after him?"

Hermione shook her head but couldn't hide the smile at Ron's obviously keen sense of getting out of anything to do with schooling. "He is one of the best young wizards Ron, he's not exactly going to leave a trail for us to follow."

Ron shut his mouth and sunk back into his seat. "But we can't just pretend like nothing's happened."

"No, we can't just do nothing. Don't worry Ronald I think I have a plan."

She crept silently through the dungeons; her untameable curly hair curtained her face from any passers-by. It was darker than she thought it would be, even with the small dim glow of the candles from the walls.

Her heart was racing in her chest, fighting to jump out and run back into the comfort of the Gryffindor common room. Wiping her sweaty palms on the inside of her cloak, she released a lungful of air that she had been holding since entering the gloomy dungeon corridors. The directions to Malfoy's makeshift office were scribbled on the back of her hand, but she could barely make anything out in the light, and sweat had smudged the ink. Her mouth was parched; she hadn't had anything to eat or drink all day. Her whole mind had been focused on her task for tonight. It wasn't too late to turn back. She could run as fast as her legs could carry her; back to Ron, to the Weasley's, to the Professors, to safety, and never return. But in getting an audience with Draco Malfoy, she would be protecting not only Harry but the whole wizarding community.

If Harry was killed, there would be no hope left. So as she found the ancient wooden door Goyle had described, she reached out her palm toward the handle and the hinges creaked open.

"For Harry..." She whispered to herself, "No turning back." And with that, she stepped over the threshold.