Title: By Your Side
Rating: T
Pairing(s)/Character(s): Harry, Hermione, Ron
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: Don't own 'em - not making any money off 'em. Dern it.
Word Count: 1.658
Summary: What if during the quest for the Horcruxes, the locket latches onto Hermione, instead of Ron - playing with her insecurities and weaknesses? What might have changed? What might have stayed the same?

Notes:

2nd Triwizard Tournament Competition: Stage Two - Write a plot/scenario/pairing specifically designed by another competitor.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry: [Writing Club!] The Word Prompt Express - Prompt Used - 96. Building

Harry stared wide-eyed at Hermione. He knew something had been building for a while now so he should have expected an explosion. When it finally came though, it still took him by surprise. "Hermione..."

The ugly sneer on her face marred her usually pretty face. "What? Can't handle the truth, little Harry? Poor little orphan Harry Potter. Always has to be the grand hero because he couldn't save his own parents or godfather."

"Hermione!" Ron interrupted, completely aghast at her cruel words.

Hermione kept on going nonetheless. "He doesn't even realize he would have been dead if it wasn't for me. Then again, I'm simply a Muggle-born know-it-all! No one appreciates me!"

"That's not true," Harry interrupted.

Hermione continued as if she didn't hear him. "Oh, yes. All I'm good for is spitting out useless facts that no one cares about. I study so hard, afraid to fail, and all I have to look forward to is being teased for my work ethic. And I will be lucky to get a good job with my Muggle-born status! And no one ever cares about how hard I work."

Harry reached for her, but she shoved him before his hand could make contact with her shoulder.

"Don't touch me!" she screamed. "You're as bad as everyone else. I might as well be your hired brain. I never had friends as a kid, and I don't have a friend now."

"Hermione, you know that's not true. I am your friend," Harry quietly tried, hoping she would finally listen to him.

Hermione turned her back to him, crossing her arms over her heaving chest.

Ron finally decided to interject. "Hermione, I ain't sure what's bloody going on with you, but you know Harry's your best friend. He would do anything for you."

"I'm done being a doormat," she growled fiercely.

Ron attempted to get her attention once again. "Hermione –"

"I'm leaving. Harry can do his little mission by himself. Let's see how long he survives without my help!"

Harry found his heart break just a little bit. "Hermione, you can't be serious. We're a team. We've always been a team."

Hermione ignored him and turned to Ron. "Who are you with? Me or Harry?" Hermione demanded.

Ron opened his mouth and then closed it. He looked from his best friend to the girl he fancied just a little bit. "You can't be serious about me choosing between the two of you."

Hermione's eyes narrowed as she nodded. "Choose. Show me that I was wrong about having no friends. Show me I'm not alone."

"Both of you are my friends! How can you ask me to choose one over the other? Harry's trying to stop You-Know-Who. I can't abandon him on this hunt."

"It's not like you haven't abandoned him in the past. Does fourth year ring a bell for you? Choose."

"I...I can't."

"Then I guess you made your choice." She turned to walk away without a backwards glance, but she made sure to take the locket off from around her neck and toss it over her shoulder to Harry who numbly caught it.

"Hermione, wait!" Ron yelled. He turned to Harry with apologetic eyes. "Harry, I'm sorry, mate, but I'm going with Hermione. I can't turn away from her." And he too was gone, his shoulder brushing against hers as they made their way away from the campsite, in order to Apparate to somewhere else.

Harry was left by himself with the shredded remains of his heart and a locket. Both of his best friends were gone, and somehow, he had to continue on the hunt alone. How would he survive?

Harry stayed in the same location for weeks, knowing it was dangerous to not be on the move but at the same time, unable to gather the desire to leave even if he was risking his life by being immobile. It was hard to find the want to continue when he had no one to continue with.

Faces flashed through his mind, though. Faces of everyone that was counting on him to defeat Voldemort, and he knew he couldn't let them down.

He had to continue no matter what.

~ HPHG ~

Hermione found her anger dissipating the more time she spent away from Harry, and she wasn't sure where it came from in the first place. She and Ron were at Shell Cottage Bill and Fleur, but she knew the couple wasn't pleased with them.

When she and Ron first arrived, she was belligerent that they were unhappy with Harry being alone. All she could think at the time was 'Harry this, Harry that. Why is it always about Harry?'

Now though, she felt guilt swimming within her stomach as realization set in. Harry was on a dangerous mission, one he might not survive, and she and Ron had left him with no backup.

Why though?

Ron had been flaky in the past when it came to his loyalty. Third year towards her and fourth year towards Harry stood out in her mind. Hermione, though, had always been steadfast when it came to standing at Harry's side. Why did that change so suddenly?

She took the books out of her beaded bag – books about Horcruxes that she never gave back to Harry when she left – and started researching, trying to find if something might have changed within her because of the locket she had worn around her neck. Maybe it turned her dark. Maybe it turned her into an unfeeling bitch that was a lousy friend to one of the most loyal people that she knew.

Her eyes moved over the pages, reading diligently. She didn't pay attention when Bill or Fleur came into the room and neither of them bothered her or pulled her away from her research.

It was a few hours before she found something.

Horcruxes may wreak havoc on a person's psyche, making their doubts and insecurities take center stage in their mind.

She thought about her ugly words to Harry before she left and knew that was what had happened.

She knew deep down it wasn't her fault, but that didn't make the guilt go away. She had left Harry when he shouldn't have been alone. She needed to find him. And fast.

She quickly hurried out of her room, finding Bill, Fleur, and Ron sitting at the table. "I need to find Harry. I should have never left."

"About time," Bill muttered.

Fleur nodded seriously.

"Hermione?" Ron questioned, stuffing something into his mouth.

Hermione narrowed her eyes. "My excuse for leaving was the locket was messing with me. What's yours?"

"You told me to choose," he dumbly pointed out with a finger wagging at her. He had the nerve to blame her!?

"And you should have chosen Harry. He needed you a lot more than I did. And now we have to find him and hope we're not too late. You coming or not?"

Ron stood up, but Hermione knew the damage was done. She would never look at Ron the same way. It was one thing for the redhead to abandon Harry when he still had Hermione at his side. Ron should have never left Harry when Hermione was gone as well. And she knew whatever chance there might have been for Ron and Hermione to get together was now gone. She would never forgive herself, and she would never forgive Ron.

~ HPHG ~

Harry felt his life force slowly leave his body. When he followed Bathilda, he hoped to find the Gryffindor sword but really, it was all a trap.

The snake was hidden, and as it continued to attack him, he knew he didn't have a chance to defend, not with how swift Nagini was.

Even as he felt his body grow weaker, Harry was alert enough to see Ron and Hermione appear. It was too late, though. The venom was working its way through his body, and he knew he would soon be dead.

Hermione said something to Ron who Disapparated, and then she grabbed him, warding off the snake with a shield, and Apparated the both of them away, right before Voldemort showed up ready to gloat about the fallen boy-who-lived.

His eyes were closed when they landed and Hermione shoved something down her throat.

"A bezoar," she explained to someone, but the voice seemed far away. He lost consciousness, sure that he would never wake up, even as his mind tried to remember why bezoar sound so familiar.

When he did wake up, it was to soft brown hair tickling his nose. He shifted, and the head the rested on his chest jerked up.

Hermione's emotion-filled eyes confused him because as far as he remembered, she hated him. "How?" he rasped, his throat dry.

"A bezoar can be an antidote to many things, including snake venom," she whispered as tears fell down her cheeks in crystalline paths.

"Why?" he asked, knowing she would understand.

"The locket. It messed with my mind, made me believe horrible things. It's not an excuse, but it's the truth. I'm so sorry I let you down. I told myself I would always be by your side and I broke my promise. You could have died –" She cut herself with a hiccupping sob.

"Hermione –"

"You should have never been all by yourself. I already told Ron what I thought about him choosing me, but I should have been strong enough to overcome the locket's evilness. I'm a horrible, horrible person." The self-loathing was clear in her voice.

Harry wanted to take her hand, but his limbs felt too heavy. "I forgive you," he whispered instead.

"You shouldn't," she cried brokenly. "You shouldn't forgive me. I don't deserve it."

"You came back, didn't you? That's all that matters."

And he drifted back to sleep.

~ HPHG ~

Hermione watched him, vowing to herself that she would never turn away from him. And this time, she would keep her promise.

Notes: I always found Hermione to be more loyal than Ron so it's my idea that if she wore the locket during the Horcrux hunt, she might have left, but she also might have come back sooner.