Three Days Earlier
It wasn't necessarily that she disliked flying, Hermione mused as she soared over the Earth. In fact, she actually liked the sight of the ground speeding by, far below her. Nor was a fear of heights the reason for her nervousness. Hermione wasn't scared of much, and she certainly wasn't afraid of being high up in the air. The thing with flying, the thing that had always set her teeth on edge, was the lack of control she had when on a broomstick.
If there was one thing Hermione Granger abhorred, it was a lack of control.
The thrice-damned magical flying apparatuses just knew, she felt, that she was as nervous as a first year under the Sorting Hat every time she straddled a broom and tried their damnedest to make her flight as difficult as it could. She had heard people say that brooms could sense when their rider was unsure of themselves and would become harder to rein in when an inexperienced or nervous flier was mounted on them. Brooms seemed to have a mind of their own and Hermione was sure they conspired against her the second she ordered one to obey her commands.
Of course, none of these things mattered if you were sitting in the lap of one of the best broom fliers in recent memory, screwing him for all you were worth, while flying hundreds of feet over the ground. While Hermione was loathe to give up control in most situations, a word from Harry was enough to set her resolve to crumbling. It was an unusual turn of events for the witch who was known for using logic to batter her verbal sparring partners into submission, but she quickly found that, when it came to her lover, she would do anything for him. Anything, including fucking him on a broom as they flew towards Hogwarts.
"Fuck, Harry. I'm cumming," she exclaimed as her orgasm began to break upon the shores. She lay back upon the broomstick and stared up into Harry's eyes, the cushioning charm working near capacity to keep the two teens comfortable in the awkward position they found themselves in. Since she could no longer use her leverage to work her lover towards orgasm, Hermione flexed the muscles in her vaginal walls and began to milk Harry's cock. A couple short seconds later and, with a cry of her name, Harry finished inside of her. Neither were aware of the steady loss of altitude that followed the completion of their orgasms. When Hermione and Harry were both sufficiently recovered from their amorous activities, they finally noticed that Harry's Firebolt had set down just outside of Hogsmeade, the perfect location to begin their infiltration of the ancient Scottish castle they lived in for the majority of the year. After catching their breath, both carefully dismounted, with Harry shrinking and stowing the broomstick in his robes.
"Merlin, Harry," Hermione exclaimed as she fixed her windblown hair. The frizzy mess was always in the way and she resolved to take care of it as soon as possible. Maybe something shorter and more stylish and with a hot wardrobe to go along to personify her new... perspective on life. Speaking of...
"Harry, what's going on with us?" She pulled her lover to a stop behind Honeydukes, their intended insertion point into Hogwarts. "Not that I'm complaining, mind you, but we've changed rather significantly. All we've done for the past few hours is shag like a couple of rabid bunnies."
"You'd rather we shagged like something else? Randy elephants, maybe," he asked, eyebrow raised.
"Prat," she said, rolling her eyes. "You know what I mean. Before tonight, I was a virgin. Don't get me wrong, I love being with you and I wouldn't trade what we have for anything, but sex with you wasn't really occupying my every waking moment like it does now. Not to mention your attitude change. Again, I'm not complaining. I love the new, more confident Harry Potter." Hermione leaned into him, whispering in his ear. "Listening to you give orders makes me wet," she said huskily before softly biting his earlobe and straightening back up. "Do you see what I mean? I can't go two minutes without wanting to push you to the ground and mount you. We're like two completely different people now," she finished softly.
Harry stared into her eyes for a moment, before nodding and placing a kiss on her forehead. "I suppose I do owe you an explanation. We're going to be together for a long time and I can't seem to keep secrets from you, anyway." He grinned at her cheekily and she replied with a small smile. "Let's wait until we get into the tunnel that leads to Hogwarts. I don't want to take the chance that someone will overhear us."
Hermione nodded in agreement and Harry pulled his invisibility cloak from his pocket to conceal them under. "You never could keep things from me very well, could you," she asked impishly. Harry hesitated in placing the cloak over their bodies, raising a questioning eyebrow at her.
"Don't think for a second that I didn't know you were going to ask me to the Yule Ball before Ronald said something stupid. Of course, I was already going with Viktor, but I would have seriously considered telling him to sod off if you would've asked me. And that compromising position Rita caught us in that same year? I could feel your hands beginning to wander before that camera went off."
Harry's mouth dropped open in shock. "You little minx! I figured I had done a good job keeping those thoughts to myself. How did you..."
"Please, Harry," she said contemptuously, grabbing the cloak from his still hands and pulling it over their bodies. "Let's just say that teenage boys' emotions aren't that difficult to read and leave it at that. Now, Honeydukes?" Harry shook off his stupor and led the way to the door of Hogsmeade's famous sweet shop. As they entered, the bell above the door tinkled, announcing their arrival. Mrs. Flume, who was working the counter, looked up and frowned when she failed to notice a new customer. Hermione pulled Harry over to the only other occupant of the store, a middle aged witch, and kicked the display next to her to the ground. The action caught the attention of the woman behind the counter, as well as the patron, and both rushed to clean up the mess, leaving the door to the backroom unattended. Just as Harry reached out to touch the knob, the door was opened from the other side and Ambrosius Flume exited. Harry and Hermione used the small window of opportunity to sneak through before he closed the door behind him and they quickly ran down to the cellar.
"So," Hermione began slowly, as she closed the trapdoor leading to the hidden tunnel into Hogwarts, "you were saying something about an explanation?" She removed her wand to light up the tunnel, but Harry stopped her before she could say the spell.
"You don't want to do that with the trace still on you," Harry offered from the darkness and, with a click, a bright beam of light lit the pitch-black corridor. "I thought you were supposed to be the smart one," he said, waving the flashlight in front of the girl. Hermione huffed in response. "Right, so... an explanation." He took her hand and led the way down the earthy passage, the beam from the flashlight cutting their way through the gloom. "Well, I had been having some wicked dreams since I got back to Privet Drive for the summer, but the night that changed everything for us I had a terrible nightmare about the Department of Mysteries..."
Later
"When I woke up, I could tell something was different. The piece of Tom's soul said that I would still be Harry Potter, but what he neglected to mention is that, by absorbing his splintered slice of soul, I would in effect be assimilating what made Tom, Tom. His characteristics, his memories, every piece of his being contained in that soul shard became a part of me. Nothing too dark, I don't think, but it has definitely made me more confident and dominating. I finally know what it is exactly that I want and I'm not afraid to step on any toes to go after it," he finished, staring in to Hermione's eyes.
"And what of me," she asked. "I'm guessing that your... encounter coincided with the first night of my erotic dreams?"
Harry shrugged. "I'm still not sure what caused that connection. Nothing in the power Tom's shard gave me has any relation to what has been happening between us the past few days. The only thing I can think of is that the nightmare from that night somehow allowed my subconscious to connect with yours through my dreams and influence you." He shrugged. "I'm still working on it, although I think you might have a better idea after we leave here."
"Oh?" Hermione's curiosity was piqued. "You still haven't told me what it is that we're doing here. Are we going to get help from Professor Dumbledore?" She regretted asking the question immediately, as Harry shook off her hand as if burned and turned angry green eyes on her.
"That old fool will never have any say in our lives again. Ever."
"I'm sorry," she offered meekly. He seemed to understand he had scared her and calmed his features.
"It's fine," he said, stroking her cheek softly and retaking her hand, soothing her once more. "I didn't want to tell you this until I had a chance to investigate whether it's true or not, but the shard told me that Dumbledore has been planning my death."
This time, Hermione dropped Harry's hand. Not in anger, however, but in shock. She covered her mouth, horrified. "Why would he do that?! I thought he cared about you?"
"Well, that's kind of the reason we're here," he said, stopping as they reached the end of the passage. "The shard said that Voldemort had intentionally split his soul into six pieces and stored them in objects so that he would be immortal. You already know that, after he murdered my dad and then my mum, Tom turned his wand on me. My mum's sacrifice caused the killing curse he meant for me to rebound back at him. From his memories I've learned that murder, as the ultimate act of evil, is required to create a Horcrux. When Tom killed my folks, and since he had already split his soul multiple times, the small piece that remained became very unstable. The rebounding curse hit him, it splintered off a bit of what remained of his soul and he was destroyed. With his body destroyed and his spirit scattered, the piece of soul took residence in the only living thing left in the room: Me," Harry finished morosely and hung his head. He was unprepared for Hermione taking him into her arms and assaulting him with a kiss. They stayed that way for a long moment and both took comfort in the embrace of their lover before breaking the hold.
"I'm so sorry, Harry," she said after calming enough to talk. She discretely wiped her wet cheeks dry. "After everything you've been through in your life so far, for Dumbledore to do this to you..." Hermione shook her head and trailed off, leaving the rest unsaid. "So the headmaster thinks that you have to die for this piece of soul to be destroyed?"
Harry nodded and smiled. "I knew my subconscious called the smartest witch of the age to my side for a reason. As part of the assimilation of the soul piece in me, the Horcrux no longer exists. I think the shard somehow knew that Dumbledore had been orchestrating my death ever since he found out about Tom splitting his soul and unintentionally placing a piece in me."
"Well, that's just dumb. Surely he could have found other ways of getting rid of this Horcrux thing," Hermione ground out, frowning. "I'm guessing we're here to remove another one of these soul pieces?"
"Correct," Harry said, "although I'd like to think of it as getting a gift for the girl I'm shagging."
Hermione's eyes brightened in anticipation. "Ooh, a gift? What is it?" Harry chuckled at the turn in her mood.
"Now, now. I refuse to spoil the surprise." He spread the cloak out again and the two got underneath as Harry removed his father's map from his pocket. With a quick muttering of the key phrase, the Marauder's Map began to show on the parchment. After he and Hermione quickly scanned it and found the castle empty, save for a few professors sleeping soundly in their living quarters, Harry tapped the area to move the statue blocking the tunnel aside and they entered the third floor corridor. The two silently made their way into the Grand Staircase where they were surprised to find every set of stairs in a permanent stationary position.
"Handy," Hermione quietly muttered. "Maybe, since there aren't any students here, the stairs don't move."
"At least we won't have to wait for them to get into position," Harry agreed. "It'll make getting to the seventh floor a lot faster." They started up the stairs, still moving quickly but quietly. As they reached the fourth floor landing, Hermione dragged him off into a corridor.
"Come on," she said before Harry could voice his objections. "If we're going to the seventh floor, I know of a much quicker way to get there than taking the stairs all the way up." She opened a thick wooden door and they found themselves in a small room containing a few bookshelves and tables. A handful of paintings and tapestries hanging from the stone walls provided a bit of decoration to the harsh rock walls. The furnishing was completed with a few large armchairs and overstuffed couches scattered throughout the room.
"What is this place," Harry asked as he took in the comfortable looking room.
"It's a small library and study room I found in our third year," Hermione explained, fondly running her hand across the spines of the books occupying one of the shelves. "Not many students know about this room so I could always count on it being a quiet place to relax when things got to be a little too hairy," she finished with a cheeky smile at her lover.
"Too... oh, you little tart," Harry groaned. He joined her at the bookcase she was inspecting. "Anything good in here?" His eyes roaming the books displayed, a design on one caught his eye. "Oh? What's this?" Something about the triangle-like pattern on the spine of the book nudged at his memory. "Do you recognize this book," he asked Hermione. She shook her head but Harry wasn't to be deterred. "I know this symbol from somewhere. I'm taking the book with us," he finished, his tone brooking no argument. Hermione briefly glared at him but said nothing when he pocketed the ancient tome, entitled The Deathly Hallows: Searching for the Truth.
"I knew I never brought you here for a reason," Hermione sighed. "Come on, the hidden passage is behind this bookshelf." After a quick check of the map, the two donned the Invisibility Cloak once again and slipped through the partially hidden passageway behind the bookcase they had just been perusing. A couple short steps later brought them to a tapestry covering the exit from the tunnel. Moving that aside, they found themselves in the seventh floor corridor.
"No matter how much time I spend here, I'll never get used to the way this castle works," Harry said, shaking his head. "We just walked out of the fourth floor and now we're on the seventh."
"Magic. What are you gonna do? So should we head towards the Room of Requirement," Hermione asked innocently.
Harry stared at her, gobsmacked. "How do you keep doing that?"
"Really, Harry," she said, rolling her eyes. "Where else would Tom hide something and expect that it not be found?"
"Point taken," he said as they clambered out from behind the wall hanging. "Let's get moving. I don't want to spend any more time here than we have to." He checked the map once again and, finding all was well, they crept down the hall to the blank section of wall where they knew the Room of Requirement could be summoned.
"I need to summon the room," Harry said, handing her the map. "Keep a lookout, will you?" Hermione nodded and Harry stepped out from under the cloak, quickly pacing in front of the blank expanse of wall three times. When the door appeared, Hermione threw off the cloak and the two swept into the Room of Hidden Things.
They were immediately surprised by the amount of... crap in the room. Littered with broken furniture, discarded books, musty and out of style clothing, the place seemed more like the Room of Trash than anything else. "Sweet Merlin," Harry muttered. "We're looking for a diadem. Do you know what that is?" Hermione gave him a patronizing look. "Right. Well, specifically we're looking for the Diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw."
Hermione's eyes widened. "Do you mean to tell me that the lost Diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw, one of the objects of the Founders, has been hidden in Hogwarts for however long by Tom fucking Riddle?" Harry nodded. "Just making sure I have that right. Well," she continued slowly, "I suppose it would be too much to ask that we could summon it?" Harry nodded again. "Of course. Tom couldn't make it too easy, now could he?" She looked around, her finger on her lip, deep in thought. Where would one hide a crown, whose worth was beyond value, that contained a piece of one's own soul if one were an evil, subhuman dark wizard? She came up with nothing. There were simply too many places to search.
"Wait," Harry's voice called from behind her. "I think... I think I can feel it." His eyes closed in concentration, Harry held his head softly. "Over there," he said, pointing in the direction of a particularly large stack of, in Hermione's eyes, useless junk. But there, at the very top, was a plain looking bust.
Something shiny and silver was perched upon the head of the bust. Something that looked remarkably like a crown.
"I think I might see it. On the bust there," she said pointing at the top of the pile. "Here, I have an idea," Hermione said, pulling her wand from her pocket. "Accio Bust holding diadem," she called out, waving her wand in the direction of the priceless artifact of the Founders. The stated item quickly flew through the air at her and only a quick Aresto Momentum saved her from being laid out by the speeding stone sculpture. She stared at the silver crown on the head as it lowered itself to the ground and just knew that this was it. The knowledge contained in that piece of jewelry...
Hermione had trouble wrapping her mind around the concept. She reached for the diadem, wanting to feel the wisdom of Rowena Ravenclaw for herself.
"No," Harry screamed from behind her. He grabbed her arm and pulled her back into his embrace. "You can't touch it yet, love," he explained softly as he released her hand. He turned back to the bust a few feet away, staring intently at it. "Something is... wrong. I feel Tom's presence in there, gnashing and evil. There is another presence, though." He scrunched up his face in thought. "Something lighter. Something older. I think," he said slowly, "it is what Rowena left behind in her diadem to give it its properties. And it has been in battle with Tom's Horcrux for a long time."
Harry placed his fingers closely together near the large sapphire in the middle of the front of the diadem. As Hermione watched in amazement, pieces of red light began to stream from the blue sapphire to form a small shard of red light pinched between Harry's fingers. He held it up to her eyes to inspect. "That's what Tom's soul looks like," she asked in amazement.
"A small piece of his soul," Harry said, nodding. He looked around and found a small piece of rubble, placing it in his hand. "I need your help now, Hermione. Transfigure this piece of stone into the least dangerous living organism you can think of." Startled by the request, she took a few moments to think of something that fit both criteria. "Quickly, love," Harry interrupted. "The fragment is becoming hard to control."
Hermione's eyes widened. She had it. With a quick grin to Harry, she levitated the piece of stone to the ground. A swish and flick later, and the small bit of rock became a tiny mouse, reminding them both of a long ago class. Another flick of her want levitated the tittering mouse back over to Harry.
"Keep it levitated," he asked her, "and be ready for anything." With that, he brought his pinched fingers holding the soul fragment into contact with the mouse.
The small mammal immediately began to writhe and twist, as well as making the most inhumane screaming noise Hermione had ever heard before. She nearly released the mouse from its entrapment before it suddenly stopped all movement and noise. "Is it dead?" Hermione leaned in closer to inspect the tiny creature before it started moving again. "I guess not," she said, answering herself. She noticed Harry rubbing his forehead, right where his scar was, and asked him what was wrong.
"The soul fragment has possessed the mouse," he said, dropping his hand. "Tom is trying to use it to attack me." Harry pointed his own wand at the mouse, who screeched and scrabbled furiously to do any sort of harm that it could to the young wizard. "Avada Kedavra," he said forcefully, jabbing his wand. A bright, green beam flashed at the small rodent, illuminating it before it finally stilled its movements. "There, that should-" He was interrupted by a loud roar coming from the once-dead mouse. The formerly cute little white animal was now snarling and snapping. Luckily, Hermione had kept the Levitation Charm on the rodent and it was unable to move. "Sorry," Harry offered apologetically. "I forgot to tell you that there's a little backlash when you destroy a Horcrux. The diary did something similar when I destroyed that one." The twisting and snapping soon calmed as Harry said it would, and a quick flame spell from his wand destroyed the mouse's body for good.
Hermione walked back over to the diadem laying on the ground and looked up at Harry. He nodded in response to her unasked question and she finally got to hold the diadem. She stared at the large blue, almost purple, gem and got lost in its depths. "Can I put it on now," she asked plaintively.
Gazing at the diadem cradled in her hands, Harry rubbed his chin. "It's yours, my love." He held up a finger as she raised the circlet to place on her head. "Be aware, Hermione; this diadem is enchanted with ancient magic. I can promise you that Tom didn't place any protections on it but I can't vouch for the presence Rowena left. Tom was extremely upset when the diadem deemed him unworthy of the knowledge it contained and the Horcrux within showed. The presence in there fought its possession by Tom's piece of soul for many years but I'm not sure what effect that has had on it. It's not entirely out of the realm of possibility that it may have gained some form of sentience." He lifted her chin in his hand and stared with those beautiful green eyes right into her soul. "I say this to you because I care for you very much, my love, and I want you to go into this with every advantage I can give you. This diadem will test you harder than you have ever been tested and I know that you can succeed where Tom didn't." He softly stroked her cheek with his thumb, moving onto her lips as she melted into his touch. "You, my Hermione, are the brightest witch I've ever known. This gift was meant for you, and only you, and has been waiting for you since Tom discarded it here."
Touched with emotion for the boy she had truly loved since he had saved her from a troll back in their first year at the school, she leaned in and captured his lips with her own. "Harry, my heart, I love you so much," she said, breaking off the kiss. Hermione raised the diadem above her head. "I will prove your faith in me, I promise."
As she placed the diadem on the crown of her head, she fell once more into the deep pools of emerald that were Harry's eyes. It was while gazing into those eyes that she fell unconscious.
*Unconsciousness*
Hello, Hermione Jean Granger.
Who's there? Where am I?
I am the Diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw and we are in your mind. I intend to conduct a test to see whether or not you are worthy of the wisdom I possess.
What if I am not found worthy?
Do not worry about that, my dear. None would be more worthy than a descendent of Ravenclaw.
A descendent of-
It matters little, my dear, and it is time to begin. Good luck, Hermione Granger.
A/N: Yeah, I know, this is supposed to be completed. The story kept bugging me, though. These scenes kept popping into my head. What else was I supposed to do? I think there's one more chapter. Maybe. Also, why do people add story alerts to already completed stories? I mean, it worked out this time, but what's the point? Okay, well, thanks for reading.
AZ