Hi, guys! I'm trying to finish up this story as soon as possible so I can start up the sequel to either Muggle Games or The Life Project. (Yes, I am officially going to start sequels for these. In The Life Project it will be a threequel, going through the minor characters). There will only be a few more chapters of this story, then! Please enjoy! ^^
…
Hermione took a deep breath, looking around at the others while they chatted amongst themselves, lacing up their shoes, finishing the breakfast Meg had cooked for them with care, rubbing sleep from their eyes. They all looked so happy. It hurt Hermione to know that she would probably have to be the one to take this happiness away from them within the next couple of hours. At least, she hoped she could trim this down to only a few hours. She didn't want this to stretch on too long – she wasn't sure how much they could handle.
Ron was walking around and talking and eating, so it looked as if he would be okay to come along, much to Hermione's misfortune. She had been hoping she might spare at least one of them from the horrors to come, but now it looked like they'd all have to suffer.
Hermione was procrastinating, to say the least. She completely loaded her plate, despite having pretty much no appetite, and chewed each tiny bite fifty times before swallowing. By the end of her meal, she was ready to throw up. After eating, she took a shower that lasted about a half an hour – twenty minutes longer than her usual showers. She dried her hair with a hair drier instead of magic, and she picked her clothes very specifically before dressing carefully. It took her a full five minutes just to tie her shoes, and by this time, everybody wanted to get a move on. Blaise wanted to get back to Ginny; Draco, Ron and Harry wanted to catch a Quidditch match, Sirius and Remus had a birthday at a bar to attend, and Neville wanted to get back to Luna. Hermione, though, took her own sweet time in braiding her hair and repacking her backpack. Finally, though, she'd run out of things to do and, with a heavy sigh, announced that it was time to leave. They all cheered, and Hermione thought it was pretty ironic that they were cheering for something that could possibly scar them all for the rest of their lives.
Hermione apparated quite a ways away from where they were meant to be, but even so, everyone immediately recognised where they were.
"Is this…?" Harry began.
Hermione only nodded. They were outside the grounds in which the most notoriously evil Wizard's and Witches were buried in. The most recent addition – the dust and bones of Tom Marvolo Riddle.
"And what are we doing here, exactly?" Asked Sirius, who was swallowing hard.
"We're here to get our final ingredient," Hermione responded.
"Which is…?" Asked Ron fearfully.
Hermione took a deep breath. "A few weeks ago, something that hasn't been seen in years was spotted inside these burial grounds. It's called a Magni-Boggart – not only does it become your greatest fear, but it haunts you with it. It will enter your mind, it will make you physically ill, it will attack you. A simple riddikulus is no match against one of these. You have to fight and conquer your worst fear."
Hermione heard each of them gulp, and knew that more than one of them was thinking of backing out, but was too proud to say anything. Either that or they didn't want to be left alone. Or, in Draco's case, wouldn't leave her side until he died.
Hermione was so glad Draco was here she could have screamed and sang a song and flown and tugged out her hair all at once. It was such an overwhelming tug at her emotions that she had to reach out for him. She took his hand in hers. He smiled and squeezed her hand reassuringly, understanding her fears.
They finally came to the gate surrounding the grounds.
"Now, some of you may know that your fear is seeing someone you love dead. In the case of a Magni-Boggart, it will disregard this and show you your next worse fear, something it can actually become, something so frightening that it will stun you. Magni-Boggarts can be deadly if you don't overcome your fear, so overcome your fear. We're all here to help one another, alright? Don't forget that."
"Hermione?" Remus asked. "What are we here for, exactly?"
"We're not here for the Boggart," Hermione replied. "The Boggart is simply an obstacle we have to overcome on our way to success. What we're here for is the creator's bones. Lord Voldemort invented this curse, and so Lord Voldemort is the only one who can destroy it."
…
They began trekking through the grounds and for the first few minutes, Hermione was started to expect that maybe she had overreacted. Maybe the Boggart wouldn't come out at all. Maybe they could just take the bones and leave to save all of those people.
But even she knew that it wasn't that easy. And as they came up close upon the stone that marked where the Dark Lord had been haphazardly tossed aside, Hermione saw something flicker, and knew that what was about to begin would be anything but pretty.
What appeared in front of them first was something quite familiar – a giant scorpion. And from the way Neville was reacting, they all knew that it was Neville's worst fear.
Despite what Hermione had said, Neville raised his wand and shouted, "Riddikulus!"
Though the creature was a bit stunned, it only stepped back a few inches before roaring forwards angrily.
"Guys, remember what I said!" Hermione shouted. "We're here to help one another. Go!"
They surrounded the beast. Sirius easily tugged Neville out of the way, sending a stupefy up at the monster. Hermione was crashing out reductos at the creature, hoping she'd blast off something vital, hoping they could be rid of this guy before Neville had a heart attack. She managed to scourge several large holes into its backside, but not enough to kill the beast. Draco was launching out random hexes Hermione had never heard of, most of which were successful only in turning the monster different colours. Each member of the group had their own spell, hoping something would work eventually. After they'd been battling the beast for several minutes, Hermione saw movement out of the corner of her eye. It was Neville, and he was headed in for the fight.
"Reducto!" He screamed, and Hermione knew the beast was done for. It swirled around several times, changing form. This time, it changed into something Hermione wasn't sure she wanted to fight. It was Remus Lupin hunched over and distorted, the angry shape of a rabid werewolf.
Hermione saw Remus wince, but he was much better at facing his fears. The others didn't even have to help. The Remus look-alike didn't have time for one full howl before the real Remus had knocked him around, bringing forth the next monster, which just so happened to be Voldemort. But instead of Harry cowering, it was both Blaise and Sirius.
"Guys, this is bad!" Hermione shouted. "This could give the real Voldemort the potential to come back to life. You guys need to hold him off, alright? I'm going in for the ingredients and we're going to try and get out of here as quickly as we can."
The Boggart-Voldemort was sending out Avada Kedavras, and Hermione so terrified that she tripped more than once on her way to the grave, just behind where the Boggart was standing. The others were effectively dodging the attacks, but Hermione wasn't so sure they could do this forever. Harry, though, managed a stupefy that knocked Voldemort off of his feet, sending in a Dementor, which was rearing up for a kiss. Sirius was close to death by the time the monster was gone and in came Blaise's fear – death itself, in the form of poison. This was something that couldn't be resisted, Hermione knew, so as she dug through the dirt to find what she needed, she screamed over at the others.
"Guys! Somebody needs to hold back Blaise! Now! And somebody – smash that potion!"
Draco effectively held back his best friend as Harry brought his fist down on the glass, sending the Boggart reeling back.
Hermione finally found the bones as the Boggart wheeled into a giant spider, with pincers and stingers and all sorts of dangerous body parts. Ron collapsed into tears as Hermione hurriedly tugged at the bones, gagging at the smell as she shoved them into her bag.
Just as Hermione stood up, Harry conjured a giant shoe – apparently filled with concrete – to fall on top of the spider. Just as the oversized arachnid was killed, though, Hermione's fear decided to show. Failure.
Hermione froze midstep. She was no longer seeing the burial grounds, the grave, her friends. She was seeing every potential failure in her entire life. Namely, not finishing the potion and having to watch all of those people – all of her loved ones – slowly rot away into nothingness. It all began reeling in front of her eyes like a video. She could feel the others shaking her, telling her to snap out of it, but she could do nothing. She continued to watch the reel, feeling more and more dejected with every passing second. Ginny. The lady from the War Veterans Fund. The old man at the Farmers Market. The little boy who lived on the street that she gave health care to for free. All of those people were in her hands, and if she failed…
"Hermione!" Draco shouted through all of the chaos in her mind. "You can do this! I know you can. I don't know what's going on inside your head, but I love you and I know that you can overcome it!"
She felt his hand on hers and, though she couldn't move, she felt strength just from his touch.
I will not fail, her mind told the Boggart. I will win this war. I will not fail!
In an instant the Boggart left Hermione's head. She shook her head, falling weakly into Draco's arms. She smiled against his chest.
"I love you," she whispered.
She felt Draco chuckle. "I love you, too. I knew you could do it."
She nodded. "Alright, everybody, let's get out of here before it comes back as something worse!"
They all agreed and were out of there before they could even blink.
…
Hm…
I don't know. What do you think?