A Not So Merry Christmas: HERMIONE

I landed on my knees. Hard. The pain jolted up my leg and coaxed a cry of shock to tear from my already raw throat. I was dizzy, and black asphalt was rushing towards my face too fast for me not to be falling over. I caught myself with a hand planted on the shifting ground, heaving and gasping as I tried to catch my breath and figure out where the hell we were. Judging by the loud noises around me it was obviously somewhere very public and very not where I intended in the least. Possibly outside that little café from earlier. I couldn't slow down my mind enough to check.

Everything was spinning in and out of focus when a loud honk tore through my throbbing headache. When I looked up, I was immediately faced with the bright glare of headlights and shouting coming from the annoyed motorist who nearly ran us over. It dawned on me that we were sitting in the middle of some road. Hopefully we were still in Godric's Hollow because explaining why two people suddenly popped out of nowhere to a bunch of muggles was not part of The Plan. And neither was mass obliviation… Then again, apparating with a barely conscious Harry Potter wasn't in the plan either. Okay, I'll admit it. The Plan hadn't been going so well. Go figure.

The people and car noises around me were getting unbearably loud, moshing together in my eardrum like some sort of crazed audience at a rock concert. Only they weren't cheering for an encore. They wanted us to get out of their fucking way.

I spotted my wand and scrambled for it, snow and grim pushing under my fingernails and clinging to my sweaty hand. My eyes flicked around hastily and caught glimpses of opened mouths and concerned faces. With a pop of magic, we apparated again, this time landing just outside the charmed perimeter of our tent. The rush of it almost made me ill. One look at Harry and I composed myself though. There was no way I could be doing worse off than him. My travelling companion groaned and his head lolled to the side limply.

"Harry? Harry, what hurts? Can you tell me?" I cupped his clammy face. "Are you awake? Harry!"

"Everything. Everything. I can't…I can hardly..." He rattled and clutched at his shoulder, eyes squeezed tight and face pale with pain. 'Merlin, what do I do?' I had no idea what kind of snake Nagini was. You'd think I'd know, but I had no fucking clue. I had no list of symptoms I could work from but my guess right then was him having a punctured lung, or closing airways. Probably both.

"Anapneo."

He coughed and shuddered. He was weak and shaking and obviously in no condition to walk back to the tent but at least he was breathing. For now. I swore his recklessness will be the death of him.

Ignoring the side-splitting ache in my chest, I casted a Mobilicorpus and maneuvered through branches and brambles until I felt the magic of various charms envelop us. As soon as I got him onto a bed, I began stumbling about and getting to work on fixing the mess he'd gotten himself into.

Red. Bright bloody red. Ms. Bagshot's body laid headless near the doorway and her layers of shawls and wraps were stained with the coagulated gunk dripping from her stump of a neck. She was dead, that much for sure. But as for how long, I couldn't tell. Dust and the stench of decay were thick in the air. In fact, the whole house reeked of it. How could I have missed it before?

After the initial shock of seeing a beheaded body, I zoned in on quick flashes of scales and skin, and fangs dripping with venom and sinking in wherever they could reach. My lungs spasmed in a failed attempt to dispel the putrid air, and in turn, gave away my presence. Her head twisted in my direction. The sudden sharpness of the action caused me to take a step back. Needless to say, I stumbled on something and tripped. Bathilda's head rolled across the floor, face twisted into some mangled mockery of surprise. I gagged.

Nagini was longer than I remembered. Thicker too. And she wrapped all that heft thrice around Harry's torso. Her forked tongue flickered in and out her mouth. Tasting. Smelling. Calculating. There was only one candle lit but it was enough to see the snake's green scales flex as she squeezed tighter. The boy in question was struggling feebly in response, clawing with bloodied nails. His face was flushed and he looked like he was trying to say something but I couldn't hear him over the pounding in my ears. I aimed, but my wand hand was shaking. This was too much.

Sensing that she had the upper hand, the snake buried her fangs into his shoulder. Rage surged. The bitch was taunting me.

I got to my feet and fired a few spells in quick succession, lighting the room up with sparks. Her scales glittered and glowed but other than that, there was no effect. In fact I only seemed to agitate her further. She hissed and tightened her hold around Harry's chest. A sickening snap and a strangled cry later, he went limp.

For all the bloody things in my bloody bag, I could count my bottles of Skele-grow on one hand. Heck, I could be limbless and still count the bottles of Skele-grow on one hand. That's right. None. I tossed the bag away from me anger and grief.

Harry whimpered and kicked and tossed and turned. A diagnostic spell uncovered at least one broken rib, a concussion, and a punctured lung. His fever was through the roof while his blood pressure was plummeting at an alarming rate. The jumper I sliced open laid around him in shreds as I treated the puncture wounds with as much dittany I could find. The ones I could see were purple and the skin around them was raised and inflamed. My hands were shaking and my vision was still swimming and I didn't know what I would do if his condition worsened any more than this.

Her black shiny eyes told me that she didn't plan on leaving here without him. Well, neither did I.

"Confringo!" I shrieked. The spell rushed from my wand but bounced off those glittering scales and rebounded to the floor. The old moldy floorboards caught ablaze like dry kindling. Heat and flames quickly ate away at anything in their path. It wouldn't be long until there was nothing but thin air between me and the sitting room beneath.

I panicked and lunged towards the serpent. She dropped Harry's body and advanced towards me, excited and eager and ready for an early breakfast. I tried to ignore the crack his skull made as it hit the ground. I took aim again.

"Impedimenta!" The spell struck through whatever defenses she had and she froze solid like one of those marble statues in the town square.

I was just inches away from saving the unconscious Savior before the spell wore off. She hurled herself at me with all her weight and I tumbled to the floor, losing my wand in the process. My vision dimmed and I didn't know if the tears in my eyes were from the frustration or the smoke. It was everywhere, making it so that I couldn't see more than two feet in front of me. I felt around blindly in the haze of orange and red until I felt a familiar wooden length settle in my palm. Nagini almost had my kicking legs wrapped up in her tail and if that happened, Harry and I would both be dead.

'He might die anyway.'

I couldn't shake the grim thought as I tried to pry the blasted locket off his chest. It warmed up even more in retaliation. I swore and reeled back, only to have at it again, coal-red heat be damned. Not knowing how else to get the demonic thing off before it melted through his body, I aimed my wand. A Severing Charm later and I was peeling away a layer of Harry's skin and with it, the Horcrux. The screaming started as soon as tried to bandage the wound.

"Stop!" Harry was suddenly dragging his bloody nailbeds on the sheets. His scream tore into the silence of the night, surely drawing in anything within range. "I said stop!"

He lashed out and sat up. I tried to hold him down so he didn't hurt himself but he was much stronger than I was. His unconscious mind was unmoved by my calming words but his body jerked and bucked in response.

"Fuck! You fucking bastard! STOP! ST –" his cheeks was slippery with tears, but I covered his mouth. He pushed at me in anger.

"Harry, please! Please!" I begged him to be quiet but he was relentless. He bite my fingers and roared. I never found out what invisible foe he fought as he kicked and swung and arched off the sweaty sheets. He clawed at my face more than once and just when I thought his limbs were moving too fast for me to keep up, he went slack. I released him slowly in case he started up again, but soon realized that I need not worry about that. His chest was rising and falling rapidly and his eyelids were fluttering. My wand was emitting a loud beeping sound from the bedside table and it took me much too long to remember what it meant.

"Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy!" The air around me lit up in bright red sparks. Nagini hissed and stretched her jaw wide, aiming at the fleshy part of my thigh. I pointed my wand at her opened mouth. "Sectumsempra!"

Blood splattered my face and arms. She jolted and fell to a heap. I kicked the rest of her off as hard as I could into the nearby fires and reached for Harry just as the floorboards began crumbling to the lower level. If the entire house wasn't already up in flames, it would be pretty soon.

I could hear multiple sets of feet racing up the stairs and Nagini cursing at me in what I hoped were her death throes. By then I was burning and didn't have time to look at whatever it was digging so hard into my back. I shoved it in my pocket, closed my eyes, and whisked us away from that hell hole.

He was frothing at the mouth and choking to death on the fluids. I tried everything I could think of but prayers, because those were never answered before so why would they be then? I dropped to my knees in defeat, sobbing harder than I ever remembered sobbing before in my life.

We were thankfully still recognized by their wards when we fell in the living room. It was empty and cool, decorated from head to toe with tinsel and wreaths and shiny strings of lights that spun and bent in the whirl of apparation.

"Help!" I wailed. I bent over his unmoving body and pressed my ear to his slick chest trying to listen for a heartbeat. Mr. Weasley was already coming down the stairs, clad in a white sleeping robe and holding his wand. He pointed it at me before realizing who I was.

"Molly!" he called, rushing down the stairs. I breathed a sigh of relief and gladly moved out of his way as he knelt over Harry. "What happened?"

"Nagini. The snake." I could hardly get the words out. "She caught us. In Godric's. Please."

"Arthur?" Mrs. Weasley started as she made it to the top of the stairs. Our eyes locked and in that moment, she knew.

The house was soon alive with yells. People were running about shouting orders and expressions of disbelief. I could hear Ginny's shrieks and Fred trying to calm her down. Percy was flipping through books while Bill was at the fireplace, making a hushed fire call to Hogwarts. Nymphadora was firing question after question but I couldn't hear her. Didn't want to hear her. It was all too much and I was overwhelmed. I covered my face.

"Leave her alone, Tonks!" someone said. Hands grabbed my wrists and pulled me to my feet. Lips were muttering something against my ear.

"… be all right, Love. Promise."

I opened my eyes and saw that familiar freckled face I hadn't seen in weeks.

"Ron?" I whispered, my brain unable to think of what else to say. He smiled reassuringly and kissed my cheek. I let him lead me upstairs and away from the chaos, too tired to do otherwise.