Disclaimer: Not mine, not at all. And also the "Globe of Souls", I think I took it from BtVS.

A/N: Sorry for the delay, but this first month of school has been pretty hectic for me. I just hope that you'll enjoy this. We are almost at the end of this story, I'm a bit sad, but at the same time, I'm happy because I have so many WiPs right now… Well, let me know what do you think!

To Danii: Thanks a lot for beta-reading this, and for being such a nice pal.

The Globe of Souls

Hermione hugged Harry tightly and pressed her face into his chest, breathing in his scent.

"For a moment, I thought I'd lost you," she murmured to him.

Harry rubbed his cheek on her hair. "For a moment I thought that too," he replied softly.

"But we fought them," said Hermione, letting him go and looking into his emerald eyes.

Harry shook his head. "You fought them."

Hermione blushed. "N-no, Harry, we did it together," she stammered.

"And what did I do? I was trying to kill you," he said bitterly.

Hermione caressed his cheek with her hand. "You love me and that's what's really important," she said, smiling.

"I felt so desperate when I lost track of you, I tried to hold your hand, but all that wind it was almost like-"

Hermione pressed a finger to his lips.

"Harry, everything is all right now. You still have the key that the Caretaker gave you, right?" she asked, with a note of concern. Harry checked his pockets quickly and sighed in relief.

"I do," he said, pulling out the key.

Hermione smiled. "Let's get out of here then. I don't want to see a graveyard again in my entire life," she said, starting to walk towards the entrance of the cave. But Harry held her back.

"No," he said seriously. Hermione looked at him, concerned.

"No?" she asked.

Harry shook his head. "We have another thing to do before we can go," he said vaguely, walking out of the cave and looking around.

Hermione followed him. "What? Harry, we survived. Isn't that enough?"

"No," said Harry seriously. "We have to destroy Voldemort, once and forever."

Hermione sighed. "Harry, Voldemort is already dead. Didn't you hear him? We can't do anything to hurt him more than he is already."

Harry seized her shoulders and looked into her chocolate brown eyes. "Hermione, don't you remember what Dumbledore's portrait said?" he asked her.

"He said that you never knows how evil spreads, and he was right," she said, sighing.

Harry nodded. "And he also said that he would rather burn Voldemort's corpse than bury it, and that's exactly what I'm going to do."

He saw a huge construction in the middle of the Graveyard and started to walk quickly towards it, followed by Hermione.

"Do you want to set his mausoleum on fire?" she asked, trying to keep up with Harry.

"If it is necessary, I'll set the whole island on fire," said Harry, almost running.

"Harry, no! The other people that lay here don't deserve this," she said, seizing his arm.

"Hermione, they're dead. They won't mind if their corpses are turned into piles of ash," he said.

"I know, but it's not respectful towards them. They died because of Voldemort. They fought bravely against him. We can't simply go there and burn their graves because we'll feel safer," she said intensely.

Harry rolled his eyes. Unfortunately, she was right, as always. "Okay, here's what we'll do," he said, slowing down a little as they approached the mausoleum. "We'll find his grave, open it to make sure it's really his body– I know," he added, noticing the disgusted expression on Hermione's face. "And then we'll burn him and throw his ashes into the sea."

Hermione nodded in understanding.

"And if the evil keeps on spreading from this place, we'll set the whole island on fire," he added and walked away before he could hear Hermione's reply.

Hermione rolled her eyes and knew that he wouldn't listen to her if she complained, so she kept her mouth shut and followed him.

"Damn Voldemort," muttered Harry as he touched the door of the mausoleum. "How are we supposed to open this?"

Hermione looked at the door, which didn't look like a door at all. She didn't even understand why Harry went directly towards that wall.

"Harry, are you sure that that's a door?" she asked him, trying to sound casual.

Harry stopped for a while to push what he thought was the door and turned to face her. "Do you see any other entrances?"

"I don't see an entrance in front of me," she answered simply.

"Remember in our second year? The Chamber of Secrets?" he asked her.

Hermione nodded.

"Its entrance was in the girls toilet. Right under the basins and it didn't look like an entrance at all," he reminded her.

"Of course!" exclaimed Hermione, hitting her forehead with her palm. "Harry, say something in Parseltongue."

"What?"

"Say 'open' or 'enter' in Parseltongue. That's how you managed to open the Chamber of Secrets, wasn't it?"

Harry looked back at the entrance of the mausoleum and stretched out an arm.

"Open," he hissed.

"You're speaking in English," murmured Hermione.

Harry closed his eyes. "Open!"

"Again."

He opened her eyes and shot her a glance, as for saying to be quiet. "Open!"

Hermione looked at him and held her breath as the door slid and disappeared into a wall of the mausoleum. A terrible smell exited from the place, and she and Harry brought both their hands to their noses and took a couple of steps back, revolted.

"It's terrible," said Hermione from behind her hands.

"I know. The smell of death," said Harry. He looked inside the mausoleum and saw a steep staircase that disappeared down into the bowels of the building.

"Well, you don't have to come if you don't want," said Harry slowly, feeling bad at the idea of going in all alone.

"No, no," said Hermione hastily. "I'm coming."

Harry smiled gratefully.

"Lumus," they said at the same time and their wands lit up. Hermione took Harry's hand in hers and started to walk next to him. They entered the mausoleum, paying a lot of attention where they placed their feet because the steps were slimy and slippery. Hermione almost fell twice, but luckily Harry caught her.

"Do you think there could be something guarding his grave?" asked Hermione as they turned right.

"Do you mean something like a Basilisk?" replied Harry.

Hermione nodded.

"I hope not," he muttered.

"You'd hear it, wouldn't you?"

"I guess so," said Harry, trying to convince himself first. "It's getting cold here," he added, shivering.

"We are descending quickly. How far do you think we have to go?" asked Hermione, getting closer to Harry.

"I don't know," he answered, placing an arm around her shoulders.

They walked for about half an hour, with their wands raised in front of them, through a small passage, which was getting smaller and smaller with every step they took.

"Lucky we're not too tall," said Hermione, bending down a little.

"Funny," said Harry sarcastically, knowing that he wasn't exactly a giant.

"I wasn't joking," said Hermione. "This passage is getting too small. I hope that there'll be more space soon, or we won't be able to go on."

Harry nodded. "Right, sorry. Why don't we-"

Harry felt the steps under his feet move and he soon found himself slipping down a chute with Hermione at his back.

"I hope we fit in at the end of the passage," screamed Hermione behind Harry. He hoped that too. Luckily the end of the passage opened to a large circular room.

Harry fell on the floor and Hermione fell on his back.

"Sorry," she said, helping him to his feet.

"It's okay," said Harry, rubbing his back.

They looked around and extinguished the lights of their wands. The room was lit with torches hung on the walls, which were decorated with figures of snakes. In the very middle of the room lay a grave with a small mark on it. Harry walked towards the grave.

"Wait," said Hermione, seizing his arm. "We don't know if we can trust this place."

"Hermione, of course we can't trust it," said Harry simply, continuing on.

He read the name on the gravestone out loud. "Voldemort." He looked at Hermione. "Better if we open it and be sure."

He pointed his wand towards the grave, but as soon as he opened his mouth to mutter a spell, a red light flashed towards him and made him fly some feet backwards.

"Harry, are you okay?" asked Hermione, rushing to his side.

Harry nodded. "A protective charm," he muttered while Hermione helped him to stand up.

They heard a laugh coming from every side of the room. "A protective charm that marked people like you cannot break," hissed Voldemort's voice all around them.

"Marked people?" muttered Harry, without understanding.

They heard that laugh again. It was like cold water running down their back. "Marked. Marked. Marked. Marked," repeated Voldemort.

"What the hell?" Harry turned towards Hermione. "What does he mean?" he asked her. But Hermione wasn't looking at him. She was staring at her arm, with the purple trace of Ron's fingers on it.

"Hermione." He came closer to her and took her arm delicately in his hands. "What did you do?" he asked her, concerned.

"A ghost – Ron's ghost – touched me," she murmured. "And he left that thing on my skin." She looked at Harry. "And you? Where is your mark?"

"I don't have marks," he said, looking at his hands.

"Where did she touch you the first time?" she asked him seriously.

"They never touch-" he stopped abruptly, remembering something. He moved away his coat and shirt and looked at the skin of his shoulder, which had a blue print of a small hand on it.

Harry swore under his breath. "How do we get rid of these things?" he asked to nobody in particular.

"You can't," hissed Voldemort's voice. "The only way is to die."

Harry snorted. "Hermione, you are so intelligent, can't you find a way, different of dying, that will let us get rid of these?" he asked hopefully.

"It's a magic that I don't know, Harry. Something that we didn't learn at school," he said sadly.

"Oh, but there's a way," hissed Voldemort. "Which doesn't include the death of one of you."

Harry looked at the grave and raised his wand. "Really?" he asked sceptically. Voldemort appeared on the grave. He stood and looked at them with red eyes.

"How does it work?" asked Harry, pointing his wand at him.

"Do you really want to know?" he asked teasingly. "Maybe you won't like it."

"Try us," said Hermione bravely.

"Well, Mudblood," said Voldemort slowly. He made a gesture with his hand and a globe the size of a Bludger appeared next to him. "This is a Globe of Souls."

Hermione brought her hands to her mouth. Evidently, she knew what that was. Harry simply stared at it without a clue on what it was used for, but with the sense that it wasn't anything good. He looked intently at the Globe and saw that in it, something moved. He took a step towards it, but Hermione held him back.

"No, Harry," she whispered. "It's dangerous."

Voldemort sneered. "Right, Mudblood. Very dangerous," he said, hitting the Globe and levitating towards Harry and Hermione. "In this Globe is contained all the souls of the people that lay here."

"They're trapped there," said Harry, beginning to understand.

Voldemort smirked. "You have two chances. You can go away, both of you, without touching my body. You'll be safe and warm in Hogwarts before the end of the day. Although," he stopped as Harry and Hermione moved away from the Globe floating near them. "You can try to burn my body. But since you can't pass trough the Protective Charm placed on this place, you have to do a little ritual."

"A ritual?" asked Harry slowly.

"One of you has to die," he said evilly.

Harry looked at him and raised his eyebrows. "I have a third option: we burn your corpse from here, with our wands."

Voldemort licked his lips. "Show me," he hissed.

Harry pointed his wand at Voldemort.

"Incendio!"

The spell bounced off of an invisible wall of power. Voldemort laughed evilly. "So, who wants to die?" he hissed, amused.

Harry gritted his teeth. He would have jumped Voldemort if Hermione wasn't trying to make him look at her with all her will.

"Harry," she said when he finally looked at her. "You have to destroy him. It doesn't matter what will happen, but you have to set his grave on fire," she said firmly.

"Hermione, we have to set him on fire," said Harry, correcting her.

Hermione placed a hand on his cheek. "The most important thing is that you don't go away before you are completely sure that every trace of evil is gone from this place, okay?"

"Hermione, what do you think you are doing?"

"We can't stay here forever," she answered simply. "Someone has to do something."

"Hermione, I've already lost you once. I don't want to lose you again!" cried Harry.

"Break that Globe and every soul trapped there will be free," she explained. "Me, too," she whispered, blinking away tears.

Harry gripped her arms so hard that Hermione bit her lip so she wouldn't groan of pain. "Do you really think that I'll let you go?" he asked her harshly, his eyes bright.

Hermione nodded. She stood on tiptoes. Harry didn't close his eyes while she pressed her lips to his, but she wasn't kissing him. She was muttering something. Harry's eyes opened wide as he understood the meaning of her words. When she let him go, he tightened his grip on her arms.

"Harry, you're hurting me," she said.

"I know," he said bitterly.

"Let go," she said.

Harry slowly released her arms. Hermione smiled and walked towards the Globe that was levitating some feet from them. She stretched out an arm and touched it with a finger. Suddenly a blinding light came out of the globe and swallowed Hermione. When the light disappeared, Harry took a while before he was able to see again. But when he looked around, Hermione had disappeared. He looked at his shoulder and saw that there was nothing on it. Voldemort too had disappeared. Only the globe fluctuated near the grave.

He walked towards the grave and this time managed to reach it. He opened it and saw a dry body of a snake-like man, whose skeleton was visible under the white skin.

He pointed his wand towards him. "Incendio," he said with loathing. The body started to burn. Harry looked at it as it turned into a pile of ash. Then the mausoleum was shook by something very similar to a earthquake. Harry pointed his wand towards the Globe. "Diffindo."

The Globe opened and souls began to fly in every direction, screaming and crying. Harry heard a pop and looked under the globe. Hermione was there.

Harry ran to her side. "How are you?" he asked her.

"As if I were dead," she answered simply, taking Harry's hand to stand up.

"How did you know that you wouldn't die?" asked Harry, while pieces of the walls began falling down.

"The Globe of Souls is just a container, it traps inside all the things that touches, but it doesn't kill anybody," she said quickly. "Luckily Voldemort didn't know that." She paused and looked at the ceiling. "We have to find a way out. This place is going to fall into pieces."

"Maybe this way," said an evanescent voice at their back.

They turned their heads towards him and saw the ghost of Ron smiling at them, then he disappeared, revealing a small entrance. Harry took Voldemort's ashes in his hands and shoved them in his pockets.

"Thanks," they heard Ron say as they left the room.