The world wind of shapes and colors that is customary with an international portkey would make any seasoned traveler sick to their stomach. Even Hermione, a soldier, isn't privy to the nausea.
She lay flat on the ground staring at the clear Albanian night sky, running a mantra in her head to battle the queasiness.
In through the mouth, hold and release.
Wincing at the feel of cold wet clothes sticking to her, Hermione crawled towards Ginny.
"Here," she said, offering her companion a vial that she dug up from her pocket "pepper up potion. Thought you might need it."
The red head muttered a thanks and popped the cork with much difficulty, thanks to the snow numbing her fingers.
While Ginny was gathering herself, Hermione scanned her surroundings. She reasoned that they couldn't have landed that far off their marked destination.
Moonlight exaggerated the pallor of snow that dusted the ground, trees blurred into the skyline and sounds of the wild rung in her ears. Its definitely a forest Hermione thought sardonically.
"Ready?" she asked, not turning around.
Ginny wobbled over to where her companion stood "As I'll ever be."
In an impressive show of nonverbal magic, Hermione had them both dry and warmed up and they silently walked towards the denser region of the forest. The more paranoid part of Hermione nearly cast them in a disillusioning spell out of habit. She stopped at the last minute and nearly kicked herself for her stupidity. They were wondering about in the dark. A disillusion charm would cause them to lose each other faster than they can say Merlin.
"Say Hermione," Ginny's voice snapped her out of a self-berating monologue "how on earth did you figure out which spot the diadem was hidden in? I've seen the maps; the forest makes up a gigantic chunk of the region."
If it weren't so dark, Ginny would have seen Hermione's eyes light up like a Christmas tree
"Well it's not entirely the exact spot but its close enough. Its basic arithmancy. All I did was consider the known variables of what would make the best hiding spot for the diadem. Things like surrounding cities or villages, magical potency of the plants and wildlife, the difficulty reaching certain areas, translated each one to a runic counterpart and assigned it a numerical value,"
Hermione paused to quickly mark their progress
"From thereon it was simple as working out the probability."
Ginny listened with rapt attention, a thoughtful look on her face "That's bloody brilliant M'ione."
"Thank you, Gin." Hermione's self-satisfied expression was lost in the darkness.
The youngest Weasley mulled over what the older girl told her.
"I wonder…" she thought to herself.
Pulling out her wand she muttered to the darkness a summoning charm. Her shoulders sagged in disappointment as no diadem came flying towards her.
The rest of the evening was passed in silence.
Hermione checked her wristwatch. Three thirty a.m.
They were walking about for hours. Any hope of finding the diadem before sunrise was looking painfully bleak.
Hermione pointed her wand to a nearby tree "Incendio."
A small flame shot out, scorching the bark and causing a small wisp of smoke to float by "We'll camp here for a while. Its much less dense but for now we must utilize our time to the max."
"Sounds good to me." Ginny panted, hands on knees.
They trudged along, battling fatigue and beyond freezing temperatures. Hermione wanted nothing more than to cradle a book near a blazing fire. Just like she used to do at Hogwarts. The Gryffindor common room was by far the warmest place in the castle. Ginny would've been lounging on the ground with a magazine, Harry would huff in frustration as Ron once again beat him in a game of chess and the twins would've been in some corner testing out new inventions on the first years. It was a peaceful time. She couldn't remember when last she was that content.
Though there were a war raging outside the castle walls, there was a sense of safety. An unwavering sense of hope. They were children in refuge from a magical daydream that turned into a paralyzing nightmare.
No one really knew for sure how Voldemort's crusaders managed to storm pass Hogwarts impenetrable wards. It was dinnertime. Hermione could still remember the taste of the bread pudding shed taken a second helping of when the portraits went ballistic. They were caught unawares, cornered like game being hunted. They had no choice. Either fight or die.
They did fight that autumn evening, but they all somehow did die.
Hogwarts will never be the same again. Even if the light did win. Even if somehow, they rebuilt the ancient castle to its former glory. That much blood can't be washed away.
Hermione looked up at the inky sky. The glittering stars were like tears shed by a loveless void. She could easily spot Sirius beneath the branches. A tiny smile graced her face when she tilted her head and spotted Regulus in the distance.
"It's kinda comforting isn't it?" Ginny placed her head on Hermione's shoulder "No matter what happened or where they'd end up, they're always together."
Though Hermione would like to give in to Ginny's romantic assertion, a small part of her likened the two stars, the two Black brothers, as being so close but so far away. It was almost absurdly fitting. They loved each other so much but even love couldn't stop them from choosing different sides. Not even Regulus's selfless sacrifice in his brother's name brought them together. Both died alone. One with regret, the other with the notion that his brother choose everything else over him.
"We won't let their sacrifices be in vain." she told Ginny, choosing to keep her more cynical thoughts to herself.
"Perhaps we should head back to set up camp." Ginny said after a pause
Hermione turned her face to agree but stilled.
"Ginny." she scanned her surroundings intently. Her ears prickled at the dead silence.
"Its quite."
Her companion looked at her with wide eyes "A bit too quiet."
The duo made their way into the thicket of trees with urgency. A gasp left their mouths as a sickly feeling of icicles pricking their skin hit them out of nowhere.
"What was that?"
"I think we've crossed a magical barrier" breathed Hermione, fumbling for her wand.
She took a step back, wand pointed to the darkness "Apokálypsi Thermokrasías."
While nothing visible left the tip of her wand, their surroundings took a minty blue tinge. The illusory tint flickered, the charm weaving its way through the atmosphere, grasping any magical residue in order to get a reading.
Slowly jet-black whispers of smoke creeped out of every surface. It pirouetted and mingled with each other, almost as if it had a life of its own.
The girls looked at each other, horror etched across their faces.
The sheer intensity of energy those whisps radiated threatened to crush their chests and though no words were spoken, each girl knew exactly what the other was thinking.
Dark magic.
"I think the bulk of it is coming from that way." Ginny remarked, pointing further to the left.
Hermione carefully treaded in that direction. She breathed in deeply, the pressure violently building the closer she got. By the time she reached her destination Hermione's vision was blurred and her heart rate erratic.
I must work quickly, or I might pass out, she thought.
Her eyes scanned the beech tree. It was nothing special in any shape or form except for the dark tendrils swirling around its base. To Hermione it gave of an impression of being almost protective.
With a wave of her wand she dropped the spell and the forest once again turned to darkness.
"Revelio." she muttered at the tree, biting back a curse as the most complicated wards she'd ever seen glowed before her.
With another deep breath, Hermione shrugged off her heavy cloak and began working on the wards, barely feeling the cold nip at her bare arms.
By now, her breath was laboured as she tried to blink away the dizziness, yet Hermione kept at her carful pace. In what felt like eons, she felt the aura of the wards fall away. Without wasting anymore time, or precious air, she stuck her hand in the hallow of the tree. Grasping the cool platinum object from within, she made a break for it, grabbing Ginny roughly on her way out.
The Gryffindor's landed in a heap, Hermione spluttering and gasping for air. Despite almost having her lung ruptured by broken ribs, she was euphoric.
"Nice one M'ione." Ginny grinned, dusting her cloak and helping her companion up.
Hermione, still breathless merely shot Ginny a grin of her own. She held the diadem up to the sky in admiration. It was impossible to tell that a fragmented piece of a dark lord's soul was safely stored within. The blue stone at the centre seemed to absorb the light of the moon. It was hypnotising.
Turning the artefact over, she marvelled at the way the engraving glowed, spelling out Ravenclaws motto as she tilted it to the side.
Immensum id est thesaurus hominis. Wit beyond measure is mans greatest treasure.
"Ooh," squealed Ginny "Let me have a look."
The younger girl grabbed the object out of Hermione's grasp. An uncharacteristic burst of anger flared through her at Ginny's crass behavior.
How dare she do that after all I went through to find it.
"Hand it over Ginny that's not a toy." she hissed in fury.
"What is that supposed to mean?" scowled Ginny, her eyes showcasing just as much anger "That I'm some sort of stupid inept child."
Hermione snorted and crudely grabbed on to the piece jutting from her companions' hand.
"You said it not me."
"Oh, sod off Granger. You prance about like some sort of irritating know it all when in actuality you're nothing but a low life mud blood."
Ginny let go of the diadem, backing away in horror at what she had just said.
"M'ione," she whimpered, placing her hand over her mouth "I am so sorry…I"
Hermione's face was impassive as she dropped the horcrux to the ground. It hit the snow with a fizz. The kind when you squeeze thick soapy foam in your fist.
"Its okay Gin," she looked at the weeping girl with tearful eyes of her own "It wasn't you."
The blue gem winked mockingly at her and with a curl of her lip she unsheathed Gryffindor's sword from her bag like an avenging angel, bringing the blade down on the object with a grunt.
Platinum hit platinum with a clang.
Bright rays of light seeped trough the forming cracks on the shiny surface. It seemed to almost vibrate with pure unhinged energy. The light became blinding, melting the snow as the object began shaking violently. Hermione barely had time to throw up a shield as the horcrux exploded to smithereens with the force of a small nuclear reactor.
She was flying through the air with the speed of a freight train. The sheer force knocked the air from her lungs, and it was only pure instinct that caused her to cast a wandless cushioning charm before a tree broke her flight.
Hermione, for once this evening, was thankful for the soft snow that littered the ground. She landed with a soft thud, heaving and spitting blood. Crimson staining the snow like a bad omen.
Fumbling to her feet, she staggered towards Ginny who was limp under a pile of leaves that was blown away thanks to the blast.
She swept the leaves away manically, wiping away blood from a head wound with her bare hands
"Enervate" she whispered, sighing in relief when her companions' eyes flickered
"Ginny! Ginny are you okay?"
"My leg," Ginny whimpered "I think it's completely shattered."
Hermione had no chance to check for any other wounds.
In the distance, multiple apparition cracks made her heart stop
"How did they find us?" Ginny breathed franticly, her face white as a sheet.
"I-I don't know," Hermione stuttered weakly "the energy emissions from the blast must have alerted them."
She tugged on a stray curl, her mind in a whirr.
With utmost urgency, she began to cover Ginny under a pile of snow and leaves
"Disillusion yourself and stay here. Work on a portkey, if things escalate, apparate yourself out of here."
Without waiting for a reply, Hermione dashed into the forest. Right towards the fast approaching enemy
To those who favorited and followed, I see you.
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