CHAPTER 6: SAVING TEDDY

"I can't believe you, Harry...Two of 'them' attacked the camp last night and you said you'd rather take on 'them' alone than disturbing my sleep, really? For Merlin's sake, Harry! It wasn't as if I was having a sweet dream...and what if something had happened to you?" - She complained for like the eightieth times and all Harry could do was kept apologizing for his reckless action: "I'm sorry, my deepest apology, I swear it won't happen again, I promise, I'm sorry…"

From where they were camping, it took about two hours at best to reach London and during the entire travel time, Hermione had been tormenting his ears to no end. Fortunately, they were almost out of the Epping forest and Harry had spotted the M25 Highway ahead. He pressed his heels to the horse, urging him to go faster.

"It's London! We're almost there, Hermione! Almost..." - He told her but his grin was soon slipped away as he took in the sight in front of him. Cars. There were hundreds no... thousands of cars queuing up in the right lane and stuck at the gateway exiting the city. Harry could see a lot of people had gotten out of their cars to avoid the heat and some were even camping along the roadside. There were so many people and cars out here that Harry thought London might have been empty by now. On contrary to the other side, the lane leading to the city was strangely quiet as there was not even a shadow of vehicles, not even a bicycle.

"What the..."

"Oh no, Harry!" - Hermione jerked at his sleeve, stuttered - "Y-you don't know what this means..."

"I do!" - Harry frowned - "They're evacuating. I hope I'm wrong, but it seems we're late."

"It's not the worst thing, Harry!" - She shook her head -"They're using cars..."

"Er...sure...they couldn't have crawled all the way, right?"

Hermione slightly smack Harry in the head after his oh-so-obvious-response - "It's the Muggles, Harry."

"Ouch...wait...Muggles?" - Harry was starting to grasp the true meaning behind those words as color seemed to be drained out of his face. The reason that Muggles had to evacuate in an outbreak caused by magical creatures could only mean that both worlds had been mixed, and the outbreak has spread from the wizarding world to Muggle world.

"Look!" - She pointed at the other side of the highway, standing among the crowd was a familiar blond tall bloke they had been knowing for years - "It's Neville!"

Harry steered the horse around, made him run to the middle of the highway then jumped down, and squeezed himself between the crowd, trying to get to his Gryffindor classmate.

"Harry?" - On the other side, Neville seemed to recognize the familiar face and immediately ran towards Harry, patting Harry's shoulder and greeting him -"It's good to see you here, Ministry..."

"Shh. There are Muggles here." - Harry put a finger on his lips and suddenly feeling rather silly as this whole thing had no longer been a separate issue taking into the fact that the outbreak had spread widely. Still, Harry pulled Neville to a quiet corner and asked. "What's all this about?"

"I'm not really sure either. It all happened yesterday night and as I was about to go to bed, the hearth in my house lit up with a blue flame. Kingsley's face appeared as a mist in that flame and he started to speak…"

- Flashback-

"Good evening, magical citizens of London city. I, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Minister of the Ministry of Magic, am here today to deliver a crisis message to all of you. An outbreak, unfortunately, has occurred in the City of London. The agencies have been receiving reports indicating that in many of the places, there are the phenomenon that dead people have risen and attacked the livings. The incident happened yesterday morning in a village at London suburb, during afternoon and evening at St. Mungo's Hospital. The latest case, however, was at the Annual Music Festival in the western of London city and had caused a mass casualties. Due to the serious nature of this situation, I have ordered the Magical Army and Aurors to the site and perform necessary works to prevent the infection.

Please also take note that experiences have indicated that magic seemed to be useless to the deads. And unconfirmed sources have claimed that the only way working at the moment is to invoke a physical injury to the brains of the attackers. However, I do not encourage you to deal with them on your own as one bite is enough to be fatal and infectious which will turn you into one of the 'walkers'. I, therefore, recommend that you should barricade all windows and doors, do not go out of your houses unless it is an emergency. For safety reasons, I would ask you to refrain from leaving London during this crisis time to to avoid the risk of infection to healthy population. If your loved ones are starting showing symptoms such as difficulty speaking, weird walking postures and aggressive tendency, then you should immediately take them to the nearest health care center for isolation and treatment purposes.

I would like to inform you that the outbreak is now spreading beyond the magical boundary and might have had impact on the Muggle World. We are actively discussing with the Muggle Prime Minister on this issue and hopefully to soon come out with the cause and solutions. Until then, you may experience certain difficulties from direct contact with Muggles. However, I am calling for your support and understanding in this time. No matter what happens, you need to put aside all differences and tackle the problems together. Unnecessary conflicts are uncalled for at the moment and it's always better to have more friends than foes.

I believe that as long as we stay strong, we could make through it and win this battle. Please keep yourself update with more information from the Ministry of Magic. Thank you for your listening and cooperation."

- End Flashback -

"So... all this traffic jam was because of... ?" - Harry put both hands on his hips, head bent down deeply lost in thought.

"Don't you think people would stay still and accept their fates just because the Ministry said so? No! They are evacuating, Harry. Perhaps partly due to the influence of Muggle media from the other end. The problem is both Governments have set up health checkpoints surrounding London. No one could go into the city while people have to be passed through a health checkpoint to go out. All transportation methods have been banned on the wizarding side, so that's why people from both sides are now using cars to get out of the city and...all got stuck." - Neville finished his explanation and nodded at Hermione as she approached them after struggling to jump down from the horse and tie the reins to a tree at the other side of the highway.

"How's thing inside London now?" - Harry asked.

"All hell broke loose. On my way out, I caught glimpse of Muggles army surrounding and isolating some areas. It was chaotic in other places as well since people have been taking advantages of the situation to steal and rob the stores or other people. Some of them got into trouble with the military on both sides and the 'walkers'." - Neville continued as Harry raised an eyebrow at him, questioning the last word. So he explained the term to them - " ...I mean people who came back from the death."

Harry's eyes darkened as if this was a turn of event that he didn't foresee. He then pulled out his phone and dialed numbers, fear was clouding on his face - "C'mon! Pick up the phone!" - He muttered and heard the ringing from the other side but the person hadn't answered his call yet. Could it be...He held his breath, not daring venture his thought any further.

Ring! Ring!

"Harry!"

He sighed, relief.

"Aunt Petunia! How are you now? Are you at home?"

He vaguely heard a male voice echoing off the headset - " Petunia! Quickly! I'll go out and take the car first."

"We are at home, Harry! But your uncle said that we must evacuate out of the city. We've just finished packing and are on our way to the garage. There are so many of 'that thing' around our place, Harr -"

"That thing?" - Harry raised his voice and suddenly understood its meaning - "No! No! No! You listen to me first! Go back into the house and wait for me to pick you up..."

Argh!

"Vernon! Vernon!"

"Petunia! Help me! Hurt! It hurts!"

Right after that, Harry heard a deafening bang as the sound of metal clashed at concrete ground. His aunt had probably dropped the phone and was now running to where his uncle was crying for help.

Bam bam!

"Get off of my husband! Get off of him, you despicable creatures!"

Bwak! Bwak!

"Dad! Mom ...help-help me ...I'm scare … Mom... "

"Aunt Petunia? Aunt Petunia?" - Knowing that there was little to no chance that his aunt would pick up the phone again, Harry's face went pale as he imagined what had just happened. Harry started pacing around, hands kept running through his hair as if he was thinking hard. After a few minutes, he finally looked up at his two friends, trying to suppress his shaking voice as he spoke - "I need to go in London. Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, Dursley … it seemed like they were all attacked. Not to mention Teddy and Andromeda are also trapped in there..."

"No Harry! Going there right now is a suicide mission. The walkers, armies and thugs...think about it, Harry!" - Neville put a hand on Harry's shoulder, trying to stop him while Hermione put hers on Neville's shoulder. She shook her head slightly, implying that it would be waste of time to change Harry's mind..

"Where should we go first, Harry?" - She turned to look at her friend while he just stared back at her blankly for a few seconds as if he wasn't prepared for her sudden approval of his reckless plan.

"Ah...uhm ..." - He raised his eyebrow, one hand placed under his chin - "...Well...I assume traveling by horse would draw too much attention so it'd be better if we could find a vehicle that could transport more people and shielding us from outer attack. With the way things are now, I'd reckon it wouldn't be too difficult to find an abandoned car in the city. Before going back to the Burrow yesterday, I had sent an owl to Andromeda asking her not to go out and wait until I'd come there to pick them up. But I didn't inform the Dursley family...I...I didn't think it through. I didn't expect this whole chaos to get out of control and spread to the Muggle world. Anyway, I'll pass by the Dursley's house before coming to Teddy's. At the very least, I need to know whether they are dead or alive."

"Well, Neville... who're you going with on the way out here?" - Hermione asked.

"Only with my grandmother, Augusta... " - Neville lowered his voice - "But sure you will need my help, don't you?"

"I appreciate the thought, but now is not the right time, Neville. The two of us will try to go in and pull out of the city as quickly as possible. The less the better. Besides, you still have to take care of your grandmother." - Hermione shrugged, eyes glancing worriedly from Augusta then back to Neville - "Let's meet up later though. Say... Birchanger wood, about 40 miles away from London at northeast. It's quite far from the city so I hope it'd be safer. If you're lucky and found someone you know, please take them along. Don't take the highway, you'll run into checkpoints. Instead, you should cross this lane and take our horse, then go straight into Epping Wood and from there, get out of London. No armies there, I assure you." - Hermione said all in one breath as if she had prepared this plan two weeks ago, while Harry knew that these thoughts were just formed two seconds ago in her brilliant mind, even when Hermione was not in her best mood after a string of traumatic events.

"If you said so... then be careful." - Neville bit his lips, didn't want to leave his friends to fend for themselves but being their burden wasn't his objective either - "I'll see you again." - He assured, giving Harry a high five.

-o-

After parting with Neville, the two began going to the city. On their way, Harry found a silver Humvee H3 seven-seat with key ready in slot and left abandoned on the street. The vehicle owner had probably rushed out of here. Harry didn't waste anymore time and got into the driver seat with Hermione beside him and drove to the Dursley's house. He deliberately took a detour to avoid an encounter with the armies. The downside of this plan; however, was that it took him longer to travel, and time was of the essence in times like this. Sometimes, he also heard gunshots from afar and saw a column of black violent smoke burned up in the clear blue sky, obvious evidence of a battle was going on. And if they had to resort to such violence, London's fate was far from worse.

Finally he got to Privet Drive and Harry found the area surprisingly quiet. Too quiet to be usual. It was just as if it was a ghost town. Cars were all over the street, and sometimes Hermione would point to him bloody fingerprints on doors, fences, or trees. He pressed on the brake pedal, slowing the cars to take a closer look at what had happened in this area. Then there it was, house number 4 Privet Drive hidden behind the tall hedge was starting to appear in his eyes.

.

.

.

Screech!

Harry stopped the vehicle suddenly, he was pressing so hard on the brake pedal that he thought he would have been thrown out of the car if not for the fact that he was driving pretty slow.

A lone tear escaped a corner of his eye.

.

.

.

Then he pressed on the gas pedal and driving them out of there.

Hermione hadn't been able to say anything to him during that whole time. Despite how much she wanted to console him, she just couldn't find the right words. She couldn't…

She put a hand on her mouth, swallowing a slight sob.

Three bodies were being eaten right at their doorstep. The woman's hand was still clutching tightly to the bloodletting suitcase with purple petunia pattern, as if she had used her last breath to charge into there and fought bravely to save her husband who fell victim to the walkers. Lying not far away was another big young bloke whose lavish clothes couldn't have saved him from those raging claws.

They didn't deserve such brutal death. It didn't matter how much she despite the Dursley, she couldn't help feeling bad upon seeing their demise.

Her breath was shallow as she tried to swallow the lump in her throat, hoping Harry wouldn't be late for their next destination.

-o-

"Grandma! When will daddy come to pick us up?"

Teddy puffed his cheeks, one hand hugging his grandmother's leg while the other holding his pink wolf plushie.

"I'm afraid I don't have an answer for that, my dear... but your godfather had insisted that we are to stay still in the house and wait for him."

"But why?"

"Because... there are bad people out there...many of them." - Andromeda mused as she unveiled the curtain, looking out through the white window. Two houses away from them, her longtime neighbor were eaten alive by three hungry men. Never in her life had she seen such a cannibalism act like this. Out there it was a world of chaos and darkness, even worse than the time of who-you-should-not-name. She pulled the curtain back, sighing. Teddy need not see this.

Andromeda then checked Teddy small backpack again to make sure she had not missed anything for his everyday needs, then she also checked hers as well. They were all prepared and just waiting for Harry to come. She had been restless from last night till this morning, and the longer the time was, the more anxious she became. Who knew how much worse it could get from here…

BAM!

A thunderous sound struck through her ears as a big part of the brick wall of her house crumbled and collapsed onto the ground. She quickly picked up Teddy in her hands, held her breath and eyes strained trying to see through the thick dust. What happened? A car. A red Mercedes. It was her Muggle neighbor's, Kian. For some reason he had crashed his car into her house, smashing his head during the accident.

However, the scene was not as horrendous as when she realized that the accident had caused a big hole on her house wall, leaving them exposed to the hostile situation while the crashing sound had attracted more of 'them' to here, the hellish creatures. All the cloudy eyes and bloody mouths out there simultaneously turned towards her and step by step, they were coming closer. Harry wouldn't make it in time.

"Teddy ... !" - She held the boy close to her chest and swept out of her house through the back door before it was too late. But she soon ran into two other of 'them' who not knowing when had been standing in her backyard. She was panicked. Andromeda turned and ran to the main street. By then, all the 'bad men' had joined forces and were chasing them along the street. A majority of her neighbors had gone away and a few left were keeping their doors shut tight, ignoring the cry for help of their own kind. But she couldn't blame them for just a few minutes ago, she were also acting like that, turning her back to those in needs. Andromeda's age were now greatly affecting her stability and the fact that she had to carry a child on her hands running through neighborhoods, though only five years old, was wearing her down. She felt her breath became short and shorter with each and every running step...

Right then, she spotted an alley and immediately, the woman made a sharp turn in there, pressed her back against the wall and covered her mouth to hold her labor breath, hoping that 'they' would not notice. It seemed quiet. Andromeda put Teddy down and took this opportunity to find a way out for them. As she was looking around, a glint flashed through her eyes . Andromeda then kneeled down beside Teddy and stroked his cheek lovingly.

"Teddy! Do you see the house with red roof and that ladder across the street?"

"Yes, grandma!", Teddy looked at her with puzzled eyes.

"Good! I want you to run straight there. And remember...you must not turn around. As soon as you reach there, take the ladder and climb up to the roof then wait there for Harry. Bread and water is in your backpack. Teddy please, you must remember not to ever climb down if you don't see Harry. Is it clear?"

"Yes grandma! Let's go!" - He nodded, his chubby hand wrapped tightly at her pinky finger.

"Teddy go ahead..." - Andromeda gently pull his hand out of hers. A lone tear rolled down her cheek as the nauseous smell of rotting corpses approaching them -" ... I will lure bad people away."

"Grandma..." - Teddy was too young to understand that this was time for goodbye; though for a moment there, a gleam of sadness flickered in those innocent eyes as his tears flowed out joining hers - "Grandma go with Teddy! Grandma go with Teddy!"

Andromeda shook her head, wiping away tears from the corners of her wrinkled eyes. She pursed her lips - "Go, Teddy! Now!"

"Grandma go with Teddy!" - The boy was now stamping his feet on the ground as his hands fisted her skirt and pulled Andromeda towards the other direction.

"Go!" - She shouted, pulling out of his fist and slapped his butt causing him to stare at her with a hurt look before he turned and ran away -"Goodbye Teddy..." - Andromeda whispered as she took one last look at her grandson before running off to the opposite direction. She was running and screaming out loud at the same time, trying to get their attention and bought more time for Teddy.

Her heart was beating fast as all air inhaled seemed to be burned up before it could reach her lungs. Her legs hurt, every contact with the road sent prickly pain coursing through her whole body. Andromeda faltered, her eyes dazzled as everything became blurry in front of her. Something...someone...

One man suddenly jumped out from the alley and bit his teeth deep into her neck, taking off a large chunk of flesh from her throat. Blood started pouring out from her wound as Andromeda fell down on the road, knowing her time was up. The final image in her eyes was not of those bloody dirty hands fighting to maul her body...but it was Teddy and his bright smile.

She wanted to wish him safe...but she did not have any energy left...

Light dimmed...slowly...

Slowly before her eyes...

Until...it was all red...

-o-

"Harry! It's Teddy!" - Hermione patted on Harry's shoulder as the two drove by Andromeda's residing area.

Harry almost went crazy when he saw the house...or what left of it with a collapsed were a few walkers nearby but no traces of Andromeda or Teddy were found. Hermione then spotted Teddy's hat got stuck on a nearby bush so they decided to drive a few more rounds to look for him. But it was easier said than done as the engine sound started to attract the walkers and they were following their car.

Now that Harry had seen Teddy on the roof, he felt even more desperate as there was no way he could reach the boy safely without taking along some unwanted company.

"Hermione...can you..."

"Sure, Harry! I'll drive some more rounds and will come back to pick you too up." - She nodded before he could tell her his plan. Just as always, Hermione knew what was on his mind - "Be careful!"

He smiled, placing his life, their lives on her hands as he handed over the steering wheel to Hermione and jumped out of the car, running straight to the house with red roof.

"Duckies, duckies, duckies...Follow mommy duck, won't you!" - Hermione pursed her lips, pressing on the gas pedal, purposely making louder engine sound to distract the walkers' attention, hoping they wouldn't notice Harry.

-o-

Meanwhile, Harry had reach Teddy's position and the boy was now sobbing silently into his pink wolf plushie. Harry looked around, made sure there was no walker there before he spoke up.

"Shh! Teddy...shhh!" - He whispered as loud as possible - "Shh..." - Harry waved his hands to get Teddy's attention.

"Daddy?" - The boy jumped when he heard that familiar voice - "Daddy Harry!" - He happily shouted out to him.

"Shh Teddy!" - Harry hastily put a finger on his mouth, signaling the boy to be quiet - "Where's your grandmother?"

"Grandma … *sob* ... Grandma left Teddy" - His tears dripped down uncontrollably as he tried to answer the question.

Harry's face hardened at the news. Even though Harry didn't know what had happened to Andromeda, he was sure that she would never leave Teddy alone if there were other choices. Something bad might have happened to her... Harry shook his head, brushing that thought away. Saving Teddy was the priority now - "I'll use magic to get you down, son. Keep calm and sit still!"

He pulled out wand, pointing at the boy -"Wingardium leviosa!" - Immediately Teddy found himself slightly lifted off the roof.

"Daddy! Behind you!" - He suddenly shouted out loud and pointing at something behind Harry's back. Harry then turned around just in time to jerk backward and dodge a bite from a lurker. Teddy fell back to the roof as his godfather had dropped the wand and was now struggling to push back the bad man. He then saw Harry pull out a pair of scissors and stabbed into an eye of the attacker, some red liquid oozing out from there as the man collapsed onto the ground.

Teddy was practically shaking, he knew it was blood. Red blood soaked onto his dad's shirt. It happened in the past too. There was a time when his dad had gone on a business trip and come back in a similar state like this. At that time both auntie Instant-Noodle and auntie Ginny had been crying their hearts out, worrying that his dad wouldn't have made it. Then there were other times when people told him that his biological parents were 'dead' too, to a young boy like Teddy, 'dead' meant never be able to meet them again. Teddy didn't like 'dead'. Teddy didn't want his dad to be 'dead' or anyone he loved to be 'dead'. Tears started spilling out from his young eyes as he sat down on the roof, shaking. Harry was panicked seeing his son crying all of a sudden. He picked up the wand and performed the spell one more time, hoping to get Teddy down as soon as possible. All this crying was certainly not good for their rescue mission.

Right then, a different man came up behind Harry and the same thing repeated again. His dad's shirt was now becoming redder and redder which scared Teddy even more as he was worried that Harry would be dead too. So...he did the only thing he could do...he cried louder.

In contrast to Teddy's emotion, Harry's patience was now running short..

"What the…" - He mumbled - "There was absolutely no one here a few seconds ago..." - Harry stopped abruptly, could there be a connection between magic and the walkers? He didn't know but he wouldn't risk. Harry thought then put his wand into his pocket and looked up at Teddy - "Listen to me, son. I'm not gonna use magic right now so I really need your help. On the count to three, you jump, ok? Nothing to worry about. I'm right down here."

Teddy shook his head. He might be young, but definitely not stupid. Last year his dad brought home a mini Nimbus 2002 broomstick and gave it to him despite auntie Instant-Noodle's objection, saying that kids weren't to play such things due to its dangerous nature. He, of course, didn't understand what she meant and need not to. So he jumped right onto the broom before he could learn how to land properly and obviously... his dad had got to take him back from the hospital with a cast around his hand and neck for the next three weeks. Teddy, since then had never been fond of height.

"C'mon Teddy. We don't have all day to play around." - Harry urged, looking warily. His son hadn't stop crying and that was what made Harry worried - "Be a good boy, son!" - He pleaded.

But the boy stubbornly shook his head in response. Teddy didn't want to jump down. To Harry, a three- meter wall might not be that high, but to Teddy, it was as high as a tower. No matter how much Harry insisted, the boy wouldn't jump. There was no time to waste now. Harry tsked and decided to change his strategy. He grabbed the ladder and soon climbing up to the roof and picked Teddy up while muttering dangerously to his son - "I swear...Someday you're gonna be the death of me, Teddy." - Harry then rushed back to the ladder.

"Merlin's pants!" - His feet halted as he saw two walkers walking out of this house. All this dilly dally mess of Harry and Teddy had probably attracted them. It would be impossible to hold Teddy in his hands while climbing down and fighting them, he thought. There was no other choice. Harry turned around and walked to the other side. No walker in this direction...but no ladder either. Harry took a deep breath as he threw Teddy's backpack down onto the ground.

"Daddy..." - Teddy didn't like the expression on his dad's face. The type that auntie Instant-Noodle often dubbed 'suicide look'. He buried his face in Harry's neck, eyes shut and clutched tight to Harry's shirt - "Arggghhhh!"

For a few seconds after that, Teddy felt as if his guts had all been flipped upside down. Soon there was a thud landing sound, and Teddy found himself rolling like a ball in his dad's arms. It didn't hurt but when he opened his eyes...stars were all he could see.

"It's okay, Teddy! It's all right!" - Harry stood up, feeling a bit wobbly after that hard landing. But he soon took control of the situation, picked up the boy's backpack and running off to the main street..

Beep Beep!

Sound of car honking. Hermione was back!...And Merlin's forbid...she was back with a larger company...

"Damn! That wasn't in the original plan!"

Harry looked behind, there were five or six walkers chasing after him from the back.

"C'mon Hermione!" - He darted towards her but suddenly halted his speed when the car accelerated all of sudden, passing through Harry and charging into the walkers behind him -" Hey, I'm her-", he called out to her but couldn't finish what he intended to say when the car made a hard twist at 180 degrees or more, hissing sorely at the friction sound of braking tires against the road surface when the car rear whipped around and knocked out all walkers chasing him earlier. It looked just like in an action movie...

Hermione once again pressed on the pedal and reversing the car towards Harry. She poked her head out to a stunning wide-eyed Harry, urging.

"Get on!"

"Er...right!" - Harry hold Teddy in his hands and threw themselves onto the back seat of the car just in time. As soon as they were in, Hermione drove the car away and this time they were way faster than the walkers.

"Th-thanks. You saved me…"

"Never mind. Not like it's the first time anyway…"

Harry nodded, realized that Hermione could be just as dangerous if she really put her mind into doing something. Harry remembered the remark from yesterday that a certain someone wasn't fond of any unstable kind of transportation and that horses were extremely unreliable. Horses, in Harry's humble opinion, was still gentler than a Humvee…

-o-

Sitting in the car, looking out to the wide devastating roads in front of them and not knowing where to go, Harry heaved a heavy sigh as the sound of his heart was still beating frantically in his chest. Teddy was now laying safe in his arms. Harry looked down at the boy who was nestling himself on his chest. He was no longer crying, but still looked bewildered with what had just happened, it sure was definitely not one of his ordinary days at all.

Hermione was driving and observing the father and son through the rear-view mirror. Harry was burying his nose on Teddy's silky hair which was changing from blond to dark brown. Relief seemed to wash over him for being able to save his son. Harry had lost his family at a really young age but it was not until now that he lost all his blood relatives. He had been running frantically up and down in London just to witness his aunt, uncle and cousin met their brutal demise. Hermione couldn't imagine how Harry would be able to make it if he was to lose Teddy. To him right now, Teddy was probably the hope, the only reason for him to continue fighting, surviving and walking on this empty path life had set out for him.

Seeing him like this reminded Hermione of herself. She had never felt such an excruciating pain when all her loved ones had gone, her dad passed away and her mum, who really wasn't alive anymore, was probably wandering somewhere right now, her fiance also left her too. She used to think she could understand Harry and sympathized with him. How wrong was that! Only at times like these that she felt and experienced the cruel life he had been living since he tuned one. She even had to wonder how could Harry do it? How could he live with such a big grief over those who had walked out of his life? How could he overcome all of this because she sure couldn't...she felt exhausted.

She swallowed the lump in her throat as her eyes glanced back to the rear-view mirror again...

Hermione didn't know what her next move was, where she could go, who she would meet or how she could survive... but she was determined not to let anyone or anything take away her last hope. She wouldn't tolerate or let her loved ones be swept away from her life anymore.

-o-

It wasn't easy to get out of the city as with each passing hour, the armies tightened their security and inspected every nook and crane. They had to do many turnarounds and took advantage of all streets and alleys of both the Muggle and magical worlds to avoid the armies and the undead. So when they had been able to get out of London, the sky was turned pitch black. Harry said it would be dangerous to travel at this time so he suggested they should stop and rest for the night.

The bread and water ration that Teddy carried in his backpack was enough for several days if used wisely. It all thanked to Andromeda for she had cast a spell on his backpack to enlarge the volume inside without affecting the object weight. After dinner, Harry adjusted the back seat row and put Teddy on, trying to get his godson to sleep which eventually became a mission impossible as it took him more than one hour to do so since Teddy kept crying for his grandmother.

"Is he asleep?" - Hermione asked as she gently got into the car, her eyes softly glanced at the little form who was sleeping soundly with his pink wolf toy held closely to his chest.

Harry nodded, went back to the middle row and sat down on a passenger seat. He leaned back and put a hand on his weary eyes. The movement; however, caused him to jerk back and his face grimaced in pain.

"Are you okay, Harry?" - Hermione asked worriedly.

"I don't know...I've probably broken my ribs when jumping down from that roof." - He silently cursed at himself for not noticing it before.

"Let me see!" - Hermione offered as she scooted closer to him, grabbing a first aid kit that she found on the car trunk. Then she raised an eyebrow looking at him as if she was expecting something.

He responded with another frown - "Here?"

"Where else?"

"But..." - For some silly reasons, Harry wrapped his arms tightly around him and scooped away from her.

"What on earth are you doing? How am I supposed to check your back if you don't take off your shirt?" - Hermione rolled her eyes, noticing the blush on his cheeks even in this dim light as he turned away from her - "Seriously, Harry... How old are you? How many times have I dressed your wounds in the past? And really...not that there's anything on your body that I haven't seen before!"

The words slipped out of her mouth before she could realize it was rather an inappropriate remark in an inappropriate occasion. It felt so wrong that she had to turn her head away to avoid his puzzled look. Harry's mouth gaped open for what seemed like a millennia before he finally took off his shirt in a desperate attempt to save them from that awkward moment.

"Can you help me check if there's any broken bone?" - He asked softly.

She nodded and proceeded to check his back before massaging him and rubbing some pain relieving ointment on it.

"A lot of bruises but lucky for you, all bones are still intact." - Hermione told him as her soft and warm hands doing magic on his skin. F0r a brief moment there, Harry seemed to forget all his worries and fatigues during the past few days. Forgetting all the pain, the loss, the tears, the blood and the weariness.

His breathing was getting slower and softer...

Even just for a second, time please stood still...

His eyes were getting heavier and heavier.

How to hold back this borrowed heaven...

Hermione...

He mumbled her name as he got lost in sleep after nearly forty-eight hours staying wide awake.

To be continued...


A/N: Quick question. Who do you think Auntie Instant-Noodle is? Ha Ha.