Long time no chapter. And now a rather short chapter. I... am... sorry!
Song suggestion for this chapter: youtube dot com/watch?v=xqvRbCsueh8
Welcome, to Harry Potter and the Act of Disappearance.
~~ CLAWS OF DEATH ~~
We're meant to lose the people we love. How else would we know how important they are to us? ~ The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Daphne screamed in terror at the sight of the sharp knife being pushed inside of Hermione's chest. I wish I'll never have to hear and see her like that. I don't know what to do, but I follow my instinct and try to get my wand out, stumbling, almost dropping it to the floor. Ron is running, he's heading for the door.
"GET AWAY! EXPULSO!" he shouted, sending the young boy flying across the living room, over Hermione's couch and into the kitchen's immaculate cupboards, breaking their doors into a thousand splinters that filled the still air. Silence fell and we could only make out our heavy breathing and Hermione's shallower one.
Her blood dripped from her shirt on the boards of the porch and she collapsed. The anonymous boy had pulled the knife out of her body when Ron blasted him away and Hermione's state worsened by the second. I pray Daphne knows enough spells to at least stop the haemorrhage before Hermione bleeds out to death. Why did they do this, the Slytherins? And Durmstrang? We're just as crazy without adults. We're no better.
I supported Hermione while Daphne tried to regain her composure and practiced spells by moving her wand elegantly through the air.
"I can help her.. I can help.. I just"
"Daphne.. ahh.. breath.. please.. you got this!" Hermione managed to say, shouting the last part in pain. Even in her state, she is the one holding us together and not the other way around.
"Right, right, lay her down on the couch, Harry, quickly. Lift her legs, Ron. Put pressure on the wound it's useless if we heal her and she doesn't have any blood left in her body!"
Daphne did her best and within a few minutes she stopped the bleeding and partially sealed the wound, a thick scar left behind. Ron and I have close to no medical training and only now I realise what a huge mistake that is.
Barely speaking, Hermione kept her brain of the group reputation and told us where her parents held their safe kit and Ron patched her wound with a cotton plaster to avoid any further infections. I feel sorry for her as we don't have anything to give her for the pain. We do not have any magical or otherwise advanced medical provisions here. Hermione will have to rest through this for now.
"Guys… what about him?"
Daphne referred to the unconscious boy on the kitchen floor. Ron sighed and went to check on him.
"Harry.. come here, please," he called.
Getting closer I noticed the boy's head has blood all over, thickening away in his hair, and after checking we concluded he died from the impact with the cabinets or at best a few moments later.
"I killed him"
"You didn't mean to, Ron"
"Oh, I meant it, Hermione, believe me, but.. I didn't.. expect it"
"What if there's someone else in the house?" asked Daphne, gaining a defensive position.
I casted "Homenum revelio" and a strand of silver floated up the stairs to the first floor.
"Someone is up there. Ron, back me up." Ron nodded and followed as I took one careful step at a time and as soon as I could see into the next floor
"AAAAAAAAA"
A girl came running from one of the rooms with a huge hammer in hand and tried to hit me straight in the head. It suddenly reminded me of a comic book. The one book I ever got the chance to read.
I didn't have any time to cast a spell so I tried to defend myself instinctively with my hand and her hammer snapped my wand in two asymmetrical pieces, but she lost her balance and fell down the stairs past me and over Ron, the hammer lost somewhere along the steps.
I heard Ron whispering to her before she got the chance to recover and get up.
"If you make any more moves, I'll kill you just like your boyfriend over there.. you get me?"
She seems slightly younger than Daphne, but is just as tall and looks like Ron succeeded in frighting the violence out of her. She must be smart enough to see she's utterly outnumber and her only choice is submission.
"Alexander is dead?"
"That's his name?" Daphne asked the girl.
"I think so, we met when it all started, moved constantly to houses with food… we found other kids who tried to.. to kill us. Some have guns and swords. Oh no… is she hurt?"
Hermione fell asleep during their confrontation and the girl noticed the blood on the couch and the patch under her bra. Ron proceeded to covering Hermione with a blanket.
"Thanks to your friend," I said aiming Dumbledore's wand at her as a precaution, feeling a slight pain in my heart as I acknowledged my broken wand which I held in my other hand still covered in Hermione's blood.
"Oh yeah, why use a stick for defence?" she asked.
"Imperius"
Daphne gasped after seeing my spell hit the girl, making her release her will to me.
"Now sit on this chair and be quiet"
"Was that necessary?" asked Daphne.
"Isn't that overkilling it, mate?" Ron questioned as well.
"It's safer this way… we can't trust her or anyone else… you heard her… they might have killed others… we can't even trust in friends, Ron"
He seemed shocked, but at the same accepting towards the situation we faced. We've already been betrayed by people we counted on, so why would we even expect a complete stranger to trust us, not to mention to help us without any ulterior motives in mind.
Hermione recovered after a few good hours of rest, her wound close to complete healing. We buried the boy in Hermione's back yard and agreed on keeping the girl under the Imperius curse for the time being, guaranteeing both her's and our safety.
For three days we didn't do anything, slept most of the day and stared at Hermione's fireplace during the nights afraid of being attacked. We casted muggle repelling charms and a few kids passed by the house without deeming it important during our stay. They were using anything they could as weapons, from kitchen knives to rocks. Some were completely drunk, probably after breaking into the local liquor store.
We are witnesses of the end of society.
Hermione had the worst of it as not only her parents are gone, but we are staying in their house, filled with photographs of the three of them. I caught her burning some of them, her face emotionless. Daphne stole a few for safe keeping, expecting Hermione to regret her actions at some point.
Ron stared at the grave every chance he got, sometimes spending hours outside the house looking at the parcel of earth under which the boy's remains rested. He doesn't speak as much and his bad jokes are even worse now.
"Hermione… I was thinking about something and I'd like your input on it"
Daphne didn't receive neither an invitation to continue speaking nor a dismissal from Hermione so she continued.
"I've read that there's a presumption, mostly in Muggle science, that nothing is lost in the universe, but only transforms"
"That's what they teach in schools"
Hermione confirmed in a rather dull tone. I leaned on a wall behind them, listening in on the conversation.
"Then with so many people gone, what did their body, their energy transform into?"
Hermione's eyes widened. Some of her old curiosity took over her.
"That is a very good question!" Hermione said.
"Feeling the need to go to the library, Mione?" asked Ron.
"The thought did pass my mind, Ronald"
"What if the disappearances power the curse itself?" Daphne suggested while we watched the debate.
"Our tests showed it's already stable… no, there must be something else… what you said about nothing is lost, but only changes state… and the fact that they disappear and not just die, suffocate or whatever… their magic might go somewhere, channeled for some purpose"
"And why the 19 limit then?" I asked.
"Even if our trace is removed by that time, magic usually remains unstable within the core until the age of about 18 for girls and 20 for boys and depending on the nature of the supposed channeling, mature stable magic might be required. At that age magic is in its purest form, like harvesting unicorns" Hermione explained.
"That's a big assumption… there's nothing we can verify it by," Daphne noted.
"Before we concern ourselves with yet another mystery, should we concentrate on finding the ring?" I asked, trying to keep ourselves focused on things we can actually attempt to solve.
"Isn' HE gone? Why bother?" questioned Ron.
Me Hermione have yet to tell Ron and Daphne about the Hallows.
"If there's the smallest chance he'll come back.. we should deal with in," said Hermione.
"You really want parts of his soul left randomly across the scenery?" I asked.
"You know where it is then?" Ron asked defeated.
"I know where Dumbledore believed it should be," I answered.
"Maybe we should just give up… make our way to a foreign country and just live there… Hogwarts will manage, there are enough students there to take care of themselves"
I was surprised by Hermione's reaction. She must've finally hit rock bottom herself after supporting our morality all this time.
"We can't quit now," I pushed, "We can destroy the horcruxes and stop the Slytherins from controlling the future of the world, but it cannot be done if we fleet away or separate"
"We have to stick together, Hermione," Ron added.
"You're right, I'm sorry," Hermione said.
Daphne hugged her and Hermione answered with the same passion.
I understand her… she wants to get away from this house, this country, the places she knows that remind her of the past, but we've got people still counting on us. And there's nothing for us to do out there… just exist? That's not life. We've got to save our friends. Not only that.. that's just an excuse. We have to find out what's behind all of this and we have to prevent these snakes from coiling around the world.
A few days of planning and a spell practice later and we are ready to head out to recover the ring… or ready enough that is. I've spoken with Hermione a few times and we're still undecided if to even keep on searching for the other soul pieces, our real goal is to unite the Hallows right now.
We found the house and it took us another two days to breach through the wards and just as many to actually find the item… we broke every wall, almost collapsing the entire structure over us only to find it under a floor board.
"I found it!" Daphne shouted from the ground floor. We're all searching different sections of the house to cover more ground and as soon as her voice made its way around the corridors we made a run for it.
"Daphne, don't!" I heard Hermione shouting as I leaped over the last remaining steps. When I saw them, my heart stopped.
Daphne is laid on her back on the bare floor and isn't moving. Hermione is crying, but her wand and hands are focused on Daphne's hand and Hermione is whispering in latin, words I've never heard before, her hand moving in small circles, runes appearing on Daphne's arm.
I manage to take a few steps further and I find it wise not to disturb Hermione's concentration, whatever she's doing must be for the greater good. Daphne's eyes are fully open and she's not blinking. On the hand Hermione is casting spells on I can see a ring with a big black crystal-like stone. Daphne's finger is blackening as if frozen and it seems to be spreading to the rest of her fingers and palm.
Hermione can barely keep up through her sobs and at her orders I kneel down and rip off Daphne's sleeve and she starts casting more intensely.
"Take the ring off," she demands, but I hesitate.
"Are you sure… ?" asks Ron, who I just noticed was standing behind me the whole time.
"TAKE THE DAMN RING OFF, HARRY"
I take the ring off her finger. As soon as her skin no longer had contact with it, I began hearing whispers, more like hisses and I could understand them.
"Death… time… Stonehenge, Potter"
Are the only words I could make out, and as I listened I found myself unable to let go of the ring. The stone cracked and a blast of magic wave ran past us from the event.
"What was that about?" asked Ron.
"How is she?" I questioned Hermione. Daphne's eyes are closed now and her breathing is stable, but her hand is still blackened and Hermione is still chanting.
"She… I… she put the stupid ring on, why did she do that?!"
"Is she going to die?" I turned around to Ron after hearing his question and then looked back at Hermione.
"I… I really don't know… I've done all I can to try and keep the curse from spreading to her whole body… but I'm almost certain it will slowly keep on feeding on her magic and take over her whole arm… and then the rest"
"Harry… I'm sorry… I was stupid"
Daphne said weakly. She has woken and is looking at me, her eyes filled with tears. She must've heard everything Hermione has just said. I told her it will all be alright and lifted her in my arms and carried her outside of the damned house.
Ron picked up the ring behind us and placed it in a bag. With Daphne in my arms I took the Elder wand out and pointed it back to the house and with a swift move what remained of the ancient wood got blasted away from us and levelled to the ground. I felt satisfaction but not nearly enough.
This time we went to 12 Grimmauld Place. It seems that every single time we travel somewhere, one of us gets hurt.
"What can we do to heal her?" I asked Hermione, after closing the door on the dormitory we have let Daphne rest in, the biggest one in the house.
"Harry… I don't think there's anything…"
"THINK" I shouted.
".. more that we can do… this is the darkest possible magic, a cancer of magic and soul," Hermione continued as if not interrupted and hugged me in a useless attempt to comfort me.
I'm starting to feel calm again. Just as when McGonagall went away. I don't feel pain or anything at all for that matter. I know it's there, hidden, pushed at the back of my mind for my own sanity.
"We have to take Hogwarts back. The Invisibility Cloak is there"
"You still want to do that, Harry?"
"GIVE… ME.. ANOTHER.. DAMNED.. CHOICE.. HERMIONE!"
She stayed silent, looking down.
"It might give us a chance.. at helping her," I said.
"Harry… if she dies… and you bring her back… remember the story"
I looked her in the eyes.
"But I will be the Master of Death, not one item but a trio, Hermione, the united Hallows"
"Death is not a play thing! It cannot be controlled no matter how much we wish for it! It's agains natural order, Harry!"
"Shut up," I screamed back at her.
"Listen to me, please!"
"Whether we'll do it or not, we are still going to have to free Hogwarts, so let's concentrate on that, ok, Hermione?"
We planned and planned. There aren't that many useful plans to make, however. Everything is much too unpredictable. We hope it's enough to give a push to all the students for them to properly fight back.
We'll also try and sneak Hermione to Krum and hear his side of things. Maybe he can help us achieve our goals. At least to recover the cape if nothing else. I'm pretty sure he wont' attack Hermione with all the ulterior motives in the world.
Daphne's state gets worse and worse by the day. Almost unnoticeable, but overall she does get worse as time goes by. Hermione told me a prediction of more than half a year that she has left to live. I try not to cry every time I look at her. It has affected our relationship even if I want to show her how much I really love her more than ever before.
"Hogwarts…"
"Here we come"
Said Ron and Hermione as the four of us made our way out of the old shrieking house in London and pictured Hogsmead in our minds.
I looked at Daphne. I feel it's been so long since I've lost myself into the depthness of her eyes. I want my soul to surrender to hers, for us to be together forever.
I want to drag her back from the claws of death.
For the briefest of moments, I'm thinking that if someone wanted to bring about the end of the world, he should have at least done it right.
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