Chapter Ten

Before Harry could react, he was sent sprawling, his back hitting hard against the far wall. He hadn't even heard whoever camein. And yet they had. But how? Ron had put up the charms and the enchantments. Harry had watched him do it. How could they
have entered the yard, yet alone the house? He was just glad that Julia wasn't home. Imagine having to explain the massive hole that now existed in the living room.

Amazingly, Harry still held the Prophecy Record in his hand. Even in his confused state, he knew that the item he held in his hand was what they had come for. His grip tightened on the orb as he scrambled to his feet, ready to face whoever had entered,
even though he had no defenses.

Harry made out three assailants. He had lost his glasses, but he could see black figures in the blurriness.

"Harry, run," Hermione screamed from somewhere on his right. "Go, now!"

Harry took a step, but he was hit by something; some kind of Jinx that rendered him unable to move. Body Binder. He couldn't see and he couldn't move, but he could hear. Lights were flashing across the room, Ron and Hermione fighting off the assailants
with the skill of veterans.

"Get the orb," someone yelled. That voice. Harry knew that voice.

"Unbind Harry," Ron shouted from somewhere on the left. More lights. Red and blue, mostly. "I've got this."

Hermione didn't argue as she returned her attention to Harry. He could almost feel her look at him. In a moment, Harry was free, but he still couldn't see. In his head, he said Accio glasses, but of course nothing happened. But, before he knew
it, his glasses were pressed into his hand, and Hermione was right next to him.

"Take the prophecy," she said, her breath hot against his cheek. "Go, run, now!"

Harry hesitated.

"We'll do better if weknow you're safe," she said hurriedly. Then, without really thinking, she kissed his cheek and sent him on his way. Harry ducked behind the couch and scurried across the room. He moved behind Ron who was defending himself with
such ease. Harry was sure that if he were to turn on the attack, the assailants wouldn't stand a chance.

Harry moved to the door, which wasn't really a door anymore. The assailants had had the courtesy of using the door, but they had literally blown it off its hinges. The second Harry stepped through the door, he heard the scream. He turned his head quickly,
just catching sight of the blinding green light.

"Hermione!" he yelled, unable to stop himself.

She looked at him, frozen. They locked eyes and he swore his entire world stopped. She maintained eye contact as she fell, his name hanging on her lips. The shock Harry felt was overpowered by confusion. The scream had been Hermione's. The green light
isn't supposed to hurt, is it?

"He missed!" Ron shouted. "Harry, he missed! Go!" Then there was another flash of light: red and powerful. The silence that followed was unbearable. What had happened? What was happening?

Harry sensed the truth in Ron's tone so he started to go through the door. What he didn't expect to find was more people waiting for him. Most he didn't recognise. But one he definitely did.

Kingsley stood tall, even stepping forward to address Harry. "Thank you for coming outside, Harry."

Harry just stared, trying to study each and every face; attempting to commit them all to memory. He knew they wouldn't kill him. They needed him because they needed the Cloak. Sensing that he had the power here, he too stepped forward. "You could have
just knocked," he said curtly. He threw the prophecy up into the air and caught it again. "Looking for this?"

"Hand it over, Harry," Kingsley instructed.

"You told me about it because you knew I would go for it," Harry said thoughtfully, continuing to throw the orb up in the air. "I really should have known, shouldn't I? I mean, Voldemortbasically didthe same thing."

As he spoke, Harry became acutely aware of a presence behind him. "It's us," Ron said softly. "We're okay. The others are down. Step back far enough and we'll Disapparate out of here."

Harry risked a slight nod of his head but he did not step back quite yet. Instead, he continued to address Kingsley. "If you wanted the prophecy so badly, you really could have just asked," he said, throwing the Prophecy Record up again. He almost didn't
catch it. Which made him the only person rather amused. "My guess is that you don't actually know what's really on here," he continued. "Dumbledore didn't tell you either, did he? Just that it existed, right? Doesn't feel so great, does it?"

"Hand it over, Harry," Kingsley repeated.

"Trust me when I tell you that you don't really want to know what's actually on here," Harry said. "Because, if you do, you'll realise that it's going to be your fault."

Kingsley frowned. He couldn't help it.

"Oh, you don't really know how it works, do you? Let me tell it to you the way it was explained to me. Voldemort believed the prophecy would be fulfilled when he heard it, which was why he put it all into motion by finding and killing my parents. He believed
I would be the one to defeat him, and so he gave me the powerto do so.

"The point is that he could have just let it be. The same way all of you could have just let things be with this." He lifted the orb to look at it. "Now it has to happen." Without realising, Harry's eyes darkened. "You took my magic away, but you won't
be able to stop the prophecy now."

Kingsley struggled to keep his voice steady. "Give it to me, Harry."

Harry's grip on the orb changed. "If you want it so badly, you're going to have to go and get it." He pulled his arm back and threw the Prophecy Record as far as he could, right into the dark forest next to the house.

In the scramble that followed, Harry ran back to Ron and the Trio Disapparated into darkness.

"Yes!" Harry exclaimed.

"No!" Hermione said loudly.

Ron looked from brown eyes to green eyes. "Hermione! Harry!"

Then Julia, laughing out loud, asked the question of Ron, "Did that really happen?"

Ron shook his head rather vigorously. "Of course not. He's making the whole thing up, the prat. Don't believe a word he says, Julia. He's lying. It's all his Marauder blood."

Harry and Hermione laughed at Ron turning the colour of his hair but Julia looked a bit confused. "Marauder blood?"

It was Hermione who explained. "When Harry's father was in school, he and his friends were renown for their crazy antics and pranks. They referred to themselves as Marauders. To this day, they are total legends."

"And this one has always had a Marauder side to him," Ron added, referring to Harry.

Harry couldn't help but feel happy. He had the three most important people in life in one room, and they all seemed to be getting along somehow. Well, he supposed that it probably had a little to do with the several bottles of wine they had already consumed.

It seemed too easy, so natural, that Harry quickly realised that he was dreaming. Of course he was dreaming. In no world would Hermione and Julia be talking so animatedly. Realising that he was in fact asleep, Harry forced himself to wake up. He was in
a bed he didn't recognise, in a bedroom he didn't know, and yet he had never felt safer.

He quickly climbed out of bed to find himself still in the clothes he had been in when they had come for retrievingthe prophecy. It all just seemed a little too familiar. Whichever way they looked at it right now, they were once again on the run
from someone, and Harry hated it.

Harry left the room he was in and immediately knew where he was. It was all a little too familiar, really. He made his way downstairs to find Ron in the kitchen of Shell Cottage. The last time he was at Shell Cottage, Voldemort was still alive and Hermione
ended up looking like Bellatrix Lestrange by the time they left. How much had happened since then?

"Mornin'," Ron said between bites of his toast. "How did you sleep?"

Harry moved to sit down at the kitchen table. "I don't even know how I ended up asleep," he admitted. "What happened?"

"You're a lot weaker now that you're a Muggle," Ron said, no hint of amusement in his tone. "The Disapparation took its toll on you. You'd passed out by the time we got here."

Harry just nodded. "How are you? How's Hermione?"

Ron shrugged. "I've faced worse, I suppose. What I didn't expect was figuring out that one of the assailants in the room was Percy. Can you believe it? My own brother. And he was the one who shot the Killing Curse. I mean, can you believe that?" After
his little outburst, he calmed down considerably. "And Hermione is fine. She was hit by something but Fleur patched her right up."

That did very little to calm him. "Where is she?"

Ron gestured with his head, indicating the window. "Taking a walk with Fleur."

"And Bill?"

"Visiting the Burrow."

Harry's eyes widened.

"Don't worry," Ron tried to assure him. "He won't tell them we're here. He just wants to know what's going on. As do I, Harry. You have to tell us about the prophecy."

Harry nodded absently. "I will. I promise. I just, umm…"

"You need to see Hermione, don't you?" Silence. "Go on then. I'll be here."

Harry didn't say anything as he rose to his feet. He moved to the back door and looked out at the white sand. He couldn't deny the certain sadness that currently claimed him. He felt as if the life he knew was gone once more. Just like that. In one evening,
the nightmares of years past were back. Harry hesitated at the door. "Thank you, Ron," he said softly.

"For what?"

"Everything." He didn't wait for a response as he hurried out, determined to find Hermione. He needed to see her. That's all. He had to see with his own eyes that she was okay. Because, for a moment, he had been convinced she wasn't. He swore he had watched
her die. But he hadn't. Right?

Harry didn't have to walk far before he spotted them. There were two figures walking along the beach some two hundred metres ahead of them. One was heavily pregnant, and the other had bushy, untamed hair. The relief that washed over him almost dropped
him to his knees. Was there honestly a sight more perfect?

Harry didn't pick up his pace to catch up with them. He felt too tired to run. Instead, he walked at a leisurely pace, breathing in the cool air and trying to clear his head. Too much had happened in the last twenty four hours. All Harry could be grateful
for was that they were all alive. He had to look back up at Hermione once more, just to make sure. She was right there. His eyes had deceived him the night before. Hermione was fine.

Harry didn't feel relief. He was filled with intense fear. And guilt. It was so much more than what he had felt when Hermione was hit by Dolohov's curse during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. This was different. At least then they had a good
idea as to who their enemy was. Now they didn't. The people they were supposedly going against now were the same people they had fought with, against the bigger enemy. How was it that their allies would become their foes?

"'Arry!"

He looked up to see the two figures looking at him. He hadn't even realised that the two of them had stopped walking, because they weren't as far in front of him as they once were.

Fleur was the only one smiling. She seemed to sense it, because she starting walking towards him. Only, she didn't stop. She just put a hand on his arm and whispered. "It's so good to see you, 'Arry," and then she was gone.

Harry looked at Hermione rather sheepishly, not sure what he could say.

Hermione used her hands to gesture to him that she wanted him to go to her. So he did. He shuffled through the sand and walked right into her waitingarms. It wasn't the usual bone-crushing hug that Harry had come to expect from her. This one was
soothing, reassuring, as if she knew it was exactly what he needed. Because he did. Especially from her.

Harry felt his body relax, as if just her touch relieved all the tension stored within him.

Before Harry had a chance to speak, Hermione did. "I'm fine." Without realising, they were the words that Harry desperately needed to hear. She was fine. "And so are you."

Harry released her just so he could look at her. "You gave me quite the scare, Miss Granger," he said, too somber to give his trademark smirk.

"Sorry about that. I'm a little out of practice with the whole dueling thing."

"Well, that's what you get for choosing to sit behind a desk," he said, this time with a slight smirk.

Hermione was still clinging to his waist and she couldn't bring herself to let go. He didn't seem to want to step away so she wasn't going to initiate it. "I have to make a living somehow."

As if realising how close they were actually standing, Harry cleared his throat, released her and stepped back. "Umm, are you done walking, or would you be happy to continue with me?" he asked politely.

She turned her body, silently telling him that they could continue. The two of them walked in silence for a little while, enjoying the other's presence and the sound of the crashing waves. It was Hermione who broke the silence. "Julia is fine," she said.
"In case you were wondering. I had Margaret check in with her."

Harry couldn't stop his frown. Why hadn't he thought of Julia?

Hermione looked worried. "Umm, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to, umm… Did I do something wrong? Shouldn't I have checked?"

"No," Harry said quickly, shaking his head. Why hadn't he thought of Julia? "That's okay. Thank you for doing that."

She couldn't figure out what was bothering him but she decided not to ask. She had spent enough time thinking and talking about Julia for one day. They all had bigger things to be worrying about anyway. Not for the first time in their lives, they were
being hunted, by the Ministry.

"Did Margaret say anything else?" Harry found himself asking.

"She said that there were people in my office this morning," Hermione explained, happy to move the conversation along. "They were probably looking for things connecting me to you."

Harry looked at her. "What would they find?"

"If they could figure it out; a Phoenix feather."

Harry risked a smile. "You couldn't even figure it out."

"Thank you for reminding me," she said, nudging him with her elbow. "Shows how well I know you, doesn't it?"

"I reckon you know me pretty well."

She nodded her head absently. "Which is why I know that whatever you saw or heard in that prophecy scares you. Even if you won't admit it."

Harry didn't comment on that.

"I sense your fear when it doesn't have anything to do with you," she continued. "Whatever has you spooked has to do with the rest of us, doesn't it?"

"Dumbledore didn't make them take my magic away because he wanted to punish me, Hermione. He made them take it away to save me. I have more of a purpose. Something terrible is going to happen. And, once again, I'm the only one with the power to
see it through."

Hermione didn't voice her confusion. She knew that he knew she didn't understand, and he would probably explain it all when they were with Ron. So she just let them walk. She was enjoying just being able to walk with him; kind of like the calm before
the storm.

At some point, the two of them made a silent but mutual decision to turn around and head back towards the Cottage. Bill was probably back and Ron was probably worried. Or asleep.

They talked and they laughed and, not for the first time, Harry temporarily forgot about Julia.