Notes:
This is the last chapter, Thank you for bearing with me. I hope you had a good Halloween, Dia de Los Muertos, All Saints Day, whatever you might have celebrated. I appreciate your feedback. Thank you! I repeat it: I own nothing, JK Rowling is the boss.
Chapter 3: Death
On the first day of November, the morning after the party, when everybody was still sleeping off their hangover, Hermione snuck out of her bed, leaving Draco there, naked and glorious, and she started her research in the manor library.
It was silly to divide the day and define the early hours as morning since they lived in a perpetual green twilight but every dead person was reluctant to abandon this old habit.
The library had been charmed to hold endless shelvings filled with every book ever written by magical authors and it was, needless to say, Hermione's personal heaven.
She began researching the runes she had memorized from Harry's stone. She quickly filled two rolls of parchment and begun a third.
"This has got to be all you ever wanted for your afterlife. A library to rival Hogwarts where you can spend eternity being a bookworm," Draco declared, leaning on the door frame. Apparently, the wizard was of the same opinion.
"Shut up Draco. I'm researching your foolish plan." She explained after the initial surprise of seeing him there.
"Why don't you just trust me? Just walk through the veil with me." Draco sat beside her, eyeing the ancient and frail looking tome in front of her.
"It can't be that easy. People would be coming back from the dead all the time if all it took was enchanting a stone." She shook her head at her parchment.
"Easy?" He scoffed. "You have no idea what I had to do to find those stones, and the ritual to engrave the runes into them...let's just say it involved a lot of danger and some dragon hunting."
There were no dragons in the realm of the dead, Hermione realised, so no, even if it were easy, no dead person could have hunted a dragon.
"Going back to life can't be as simple as holding a stone and crossing the veil! Moreover, there are many people that deserve a second chance at life more than me." She was still sceptical.
"Listen, I haven't spent the last five years of my life researching every book of every known magical and Muggle library in the world for nothing. I did it for you and you alone. On top of everything, I had to deal with Theo the entire time." He snickered at his last sentence.
"He's a little-" Hermione begun, giggling.
"Obnoxious, yes but he's a good friend." He interrupted her. "After the war, he was all alone, much like me and I took him in."
Hermione wanted to tell Draco that he was a good man and he did deserve redemption and saving from his actions during the war. "Which libraries did you go to?" She asked instead, not sure he'd like to talk about his family's involvement with Voldemort.
"All of them, I'm not kidding. However, the most impressive ones were Hogwarts, obviously, the Ministry Archives, Durmstrang, Beauxbatons, Ilvermorny, Sao Paulo, Tokyo, the Vatican-"
"You had access to the Vatican Secret Archives? How?" Hermione had always wanted to go to Rome and study the ancient scripts that were kept behind the Vatican walls, concealed from the world. Even if she wasn't sure about the existence of a single god, she had always been curious to find out if religion and magic were somehow related.
"I had to pull some strings and use one or two Unforgivable Curses to convince people to let me in."
"I'm not even going to comment on that." She briskly hissed.
He smirked at her and kissed her, taking the quill and parchment out of her hands.
She quickly grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him closer, leaving his mouth to nip at his neck.
"I didn't know a dead person could be so hungry." He murmured in her ear.
She chuckled but she could never show him how hungry for him she was.
An explosion shattered the windows in the library.
Draco wrapped Hermione in his arms, protecting her from the glass shards that flew their way.
She quickly untangled herself from him, scolding him for trying to protect a dead girl and suggesting him to think about his own safety.
"A simple 'Thank you, love' would have sufficed." He retorted.
They both extracted their wands and hurried out of the library.
People were scurrying and shouting, trying to dodge debris that had fallen from the ceiling. The air was filled with dust.
Hermione ran until she found Sirius, who was also hastening, wand clasped in his hand.
"What's going on?" Hermione wanted to know.
"The Forgottens are attacking the manor! They're swarming the place. The explosion destroyed the main entrance. We are gathering everybody to fend them off."
"Have you seen Harry and Theo?" Draco asked.
Sirius shook his head and disappeared down the corridor.
"You need to find them and hide," Hermione commanded.
"I'm not letting you out of my sight. You said those things feed on the dead. You're not going anywhere near them!"
"Draco, there's no time to argue. Just go!"
Draco opened his mouth to disagree but a Forgotten monster suddenly appeared from the green dust behind Hermione.
The beast had indeed a resemblance with an Inferius but it was somehow made of black smoke. Its eyes nose and mouth were hollow, filled with the green light that dwelled in the afterworld. The Forgotten opened his mouth and with an ear-piercing screech it spat out a beam of light. It looked like a lightning web against a dark cloud.
Draco grabbed Hermione and shoved her out of the beam's trajectory.
Still mid air, she aimed her wand at the creature and shouted, "Confringo!"
The Forgotten shattered in a million black smoke shards and disappeared with a hiss.
They landed hard on the stone floor and Draco immediately felt a burning sting in his chest. He had been struck by the electric shock. He could feel his veins getting filled with cold blood. Frost was tingling in his chest and spreading inside him
"Draco!" Hermione looked at his burnt shirt in horror. She unbuttoned it and inspected the wound.
His skin was black where the lightning had entered his body, just above his heart.
"I'm fine," Draco reassured her, getting up to standing on wobbly legs and pulling her upward with him. Although he was in pain there was no time to waste. He performed a quick Healing Charm on himself and then pierced Hermione with his gaze, "You are not leaving my side." The determination in his words didn't leave any room for disagreement.
Hermione conceded, squeezing his hand and dragging him through the misty manor.
They began searching for Harry and Theo, dodging electric beams and casting curses to dissolve the Forgottens' limbs.
The manor rooms echoed with shouting, screeching, and explosions. All the inhabitants of the castle were fighting, defending their home. The Marauders, Lily, Snape and Tonks stood together in a line, keeping each other safe from the hungry mouths of the monsters. Behind them fought Dumbledore, Harry, Fred and Theo.
Hermione saw them just as Harry dodged an attack that was aimed right at his heart.
Draco and Hermione quickly joined in the battle, casting Blasting Curses and destroying many monsters with them.
Although everybody was in danger, it seemed the Forgottens' efforts were focussed on Theo, Draco, and Harry. Lily and James quickly led a manoeuvre to surround the three new guests and most of all to protect their son.
The battle went on all day and although the manor guests were highly outnumbered they managed to fend off the siege. By nightfall the corridors and the rooms were clear and the survivors were gathered in the drawing room.
"This attack was planned by one of us." Snape looked down his nose at everybody suspiciously. Realizing the confused looks on everybody's faces Snape explained with his usual bored and monotone voice, "The Forgottens don't have a mind of their own. Someone used them to get to whatever stone you three have been stupid enough to bring along." Snape's eyes pierced through Theo, who was blushing and looked guilty of flaunting the news all over the place.
"I think it's time you go back where you came from," Dumbledore suggested.
"It is true then? You are alive my son?" James hugged Harry tightly and then he flinched, putting one hand on his shoulder and extending his arm to look into his son's eyes, the other hand on his chest. "Your heart is beating. I can't believe I haven't felt it before!"
"You really should go," Lily stated sadly.
The ivory stone, that had always been safely tucked in Draco's trousers pocket, felt suddenly very heavy. He followed Hermione and the group of people that were marching toward the veil, a concerned frown on his forehead. If the person that planned the attack was still among them he wasn't sure it was a good idea to let everybody tag along.
The stone arch was standing tall against the green sky, the veil swaying slightly.
Saying goodbye was never easy but it had to be done.
Harry hugged everybody while Theo shook hands. Draco and Hermione stood aside, Hermione was unsure of what she should be doing, feeling guilty for leaving other dead people behind. Harry and Theo stepped closer to veil.
"Tell George to stop crying over me or I'll personally come back to haunt him for the rest of his life, and Poltergeist Freddy won't be easily corrupted like Peeves," Fred had a grin on his face, but he was determined to get the message through.
"How do you know he's still grieving you?" Harry asked.
Fred shrugged, sharing a conspiratorial glance with his uncles, "Twin power."
Draco wrapped his arm around Hermione's waist, gently kissing her temple, "Hermione you go first," he instructed her, putting a hand in his pocket. The magic shield had disappeared and Draco could now touch the cold stone, he immediately handed it to Hermione.
"Draco, what's wrong?" She didn't miss the concern in his eyes.
"I won't be coming with you, love."
"I don't understand," Hermione felt a sharp pain in her chest, where her heart used to beat, a sense of panic quickly taking over her, "Wait. You died to save me at the manor, didn't you?" She realized, bringing her hands to her mouth.
"You deserve your life back. And I stand by what kept me going all these years, I'll get you back." Draco was irremovable.
"You can't force me! I accepted my death long ago, Draco. You will go back!" Hermione screamed through tears.
"As much as I love these love-death tragedies. I'm afraid neither will go back, either today or ever." A cavernous voice spoke from the back of the crowd. The dark figure with the gold mask from the party stepped forward taking off his mask but leaving his hood on. A hollow skull materialized and everybody gasped.
"Death." Draco greeted bowing his head a little.
"I have to admit. I'm impressed, Draco. You really found a way to fool me and resuscitate Hermione." With a hand movement, he summoned the runic stone.
The pebble flashed a scorching light and turned to dust.
"I'm afraid nature's law won't allow me to let this happen. Some of you," and his hollow eyes turned to Harry, "Managed to fool me more than once already."
Seeing Harry shivering, Theo stepped closer to him and put a hand on his shoulder.
Death exploded into a creepy laughter. "No worries. I can't stop you two from going back either. I tried, but you are indeed still alive and you don't belong to me, for now. I can only hope your black stones don't work." Death commented drily and with a whoosh, the hooded figure disappeared.
"Well, it makes sense that Death was the one behind the attack, nobody else could have led the Forgotten army." Snape's eyes met a very uncomfortable Theo, he was blushing and shifting his weight from one leg to another.
Harry reached Hermione and pulled her in a bone crushing embrace. "Bye Hermione."
They both cried, holding each other tight.
"Say hi to Ron," Hermione said pulling away from him.
Draco scoffed.
Theo smirked at his jealous friend and hugged him. "I love you mate."
"Ugh, yeah. I know. Gross but me too."
They both chuckled.
"What should I say when people start looking for you?"
Draco searched the inside pocket of his jacket until he found a bundle of documents.
"Here, give this to my lawyer. All my money will go to Andromeda to use for Teddy Lupin. I already deposited a will in my Gringotts' vault. My parents will be notified in Azkaban."
Lupin and Nymphadora smiled and thanked Draco.
"They're the only relatives I have. I already reinstated Andromeda as part of the Black family so there won't be any legal issues."
After a final glance to Hermione and Draco Harry and Theo stepped through the veil, disappearing. Lily and James sighed in relief.
The crowd started descending the hill and converging toward the manor, Draco and Hermione stayed behind.
Draco pulled her close to him, breathing in the almond scent of her bushy hair.
"Because I know you, don't you dare say we are even." She whispered, nestled on his chest.
Draco gently pulled her chin up so she could face him. He gave her a crooked smirked and he met her lips in a soft kiss. With the corner of his eye, he noticed a bush of red roses next to an old crooked tombstone and, pulling Hermione by her hand, he walked to it. He picked off a rose and handed it to her.
And they existed somewhere happily ever after.
