Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
A/N: Wow - thank you so so much for the favorites and follows! Over 200 follows! Huge thanks to my reviewers as well: DarylDixon'sLover, winxgirl1997, Mc111, SereniteRose, animelover5107, Pwrmom2, JuliSt, laumirot, Smithback, SilverIce523, Sampdoria, Guest, Lrblucky13, chibi-Clar, articcat621, RelentlesslyRed, supersmallfeet, and Clementine Buttersnaps! You guys are awesome!
I am working on, and hope to start publishing in two weeks, a new story. It's going to be a Theo/Hermione, but Sirius will also be playing a big role. Is that something you'd be interested in? I may begin posting snippets on my tumblr (nauticalparamour) soon, if people are interested.
I would love to hear what you think of chapter fourteen! Keep an eye out for chapter fifteen next week!
It seemed like only days had passed before the final confrontation occurred, but really it had been months. Still, it didn't stop Hermione's all out surprise when Rabastan rushed into their rooms late one evening to let her know it was time. "Potter's been sighted in Hogsmeade. This is it." He whispered to her, before pressing his lips against hers as though it might be the last.
Hermione scrunched her nose in annoyance at this. "So what's the plan? Do you have spare robes that I could wear, so that I can get into the castle?" She thought she could drop them as soon as she arrived. Merlin, she couldn't wait to see Harry and Ron again.
"What are you talking about?" Rabastan asked her, his eyes pouring over her face in confusion. "Surely you don't think that you are coming with?"
Hermione stood from the table where she'd been seated. "Of course I am going with. You didn't think that I would just sit here while everyone else was out there fighting?" Seeing the serious look on his face, she knew that he did think that she was going to wait it out. "You can't be serious...I have been fighting the Dark Lord since I was eleven, and I am not going to leave it here. Harry needs me."
As much as Rabastan wanted to tell her that Potter had gotten by without for over half a year, he bit his tongue. He knew that Voldemort needed to be defeated, and he knew that Harry Potter chances increased greatly with Hermione Granger by his side. Still, he couldn't stop himself from asking her to stay one more time. "Are you sure I can't take you to Jersey? I would ward you in."
Hermione smiled sadly at him, knowing that he just didn't want to see her hurt, but shook her head. "I am coming with you." She whispered in the stillness of the room.
Rabastan duplicated his robes and handed them to her. It looked so wrong to see her standing in the black robes of a Death Eater, but he knew it was necessary. In the months since Hermione had told him she loved him, Rabastan had never uttered the words back to her. But now, he knew that this might be the last chance that he had to express his feelings for her.
Grabbing the sides of her face between his hands, he forced her to look at him, her cinnamon brown eyes meeting his without hesitation. "I love you too much to let you die tonight. If I think that for even one second that you are compromised...I will apparate away with you, take you somewhere safe. Do you understand?"
Hermione bit her lip, but nodded, feeling hot tears forming in her eyes. "I love you, too, Rabastan. I won't give you up." She promised him back, a fierceness in her voice.
Nodding, Rabastan kissed her on the lips, this time allowing his tongue to caress against hers, feeling awash in emotion. But, soon, a pain in his arm had him hissing in pain. "We have to go now. Put the hood up."
Once Hermione was fully covered, Rabastan apparated them to the clearing where Voldemort was waiting, Hogwarts illuminated in the distance. He was giving a grand speech, and Rabastan could feel Hermione shaking in anger next to him, but she kept her eyes firmly on the ground.
It didn't take long for them to breach Hogwarts's wards, Hermione thought, dismally. She'd hoped that the castle would be able to hold out, but it was all the better for her. She couldn't get into the school if the wards were up.
She'd stayed close to Rabastan the whole time, but now she knew that it was time to separate, if only briefly. She pulled him aside before they entered the fray in the courtyard and kissed him once more, asking him to stay safe. "I have to go see them alone. But I will find you again." She told him, her heart aching at having to leave him.
He nodded dumbly, before canceling the charm on the robes, watching them disappear from her, leaving her a jumper and jeans. She took on last long look at him, as though to memorize his face, before turning and running through the fighting, sending curses and jinxes as she went.
Hermione felt her lungs burning, but she knew that she had to get inside the castle as quickly as possible. Once she'd made her way through the big oak doors, she quickly ran into Draco, intentionally. He grabbed her, and Hermione wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. "Lestrange. Any other fancy jewelry that I should be looking for to end this?" He asked her, a serious look on his face.
Hermione shook her head. "No, it's the snake. We have to find the snake." She told him earnestly. Before she could tell him more details, she heard a voice that she'd longed to hear for months.
"Malfoy! Get your ferrety paws off of Hermione!" Hermione turned to see Ron and Harry a few paces away, wands pointed at him.
Dropping her arms from Draco's shoulders, she ran over to them. "Harry! Ron!" She wrapped both of the boys into a warm embrace. "Merlin, I've missed you!" They looked exactly like she remembered, but a bit worse for wear. She could tell that they hadn't been eating very much.
"We missed you too, but we have a snake to take care of." Ron said, with a sneer, his wand still trained at Draco.
Hermione shook her head. "No, you don't understand. Draco has been helping me. He and Millie destroyed a horcrux - the Lost Diadem of Ravenclaw." She was willing them to listen to her, to see reason for once in their lives before jumping to conclusions.
"Millie?" Harry asked, surprised hearing that Malfoy had helped. He couldn't imagine the blond doing anything that would go against his master.
"Yes, Millicent Bulstrode." Hermione told them, before remembering that they hadn't had months to learn to trust the two Slytherins. She could see the distrust swirling in their eyes, and knew that it would be an uphill battle getting them to accept her new friends.
"Have they cursed you Hermione? You are talking crazy." Ron said, his eyes finally on their friend, who looked surprisingly well considering she'd been in Death Eater custody since they'd last seen her.
"Not cursed, just had to make due with what I had. We got rid of another one - Hufflepuff's Cup. It was in the Lestrange vault. Rabastan got it for me." She told them. Ron immediately scowled at the mention of her husband. "Did you guys take care of the locket? Did you get my message in the paper?"
Harry nodded. "Yes, thank you for telling us about the sword. It would have taken me a long time to work that out on my own. Two horcruxes, Hermione?" He asked, impressed with all that Hermione had accomplished while in captivity.
"Yes, and now all that's left is the snake, Nagini. Do you have the sword?" Hermione asked.
Ron winced. "We got it taken away from us by snatchers."
Hermione's brain immediately began whirring. "Alright, we'll just have to make due with something else. Draco, do you have any more basilisk venom?" She asked over her shoulder to the blond who had dutifully stayed next to the trio.
"We used it all, unfortunately." Draco said, willing the memories of the dying horcrux into the back of his memory.
"We could just go get another basilisk fang, from the Chamber of Secrets?" Ron said, hesitantly.
"Brilliant!" Harry said, clapping his friend on the back.
Draco left the trio to go look for Millie, while the three Gryffindors went off in the direction of the girls' loo. With Draco gone, Hermione was distinctly aware that she didn't really know how to act around her two best friends. So much had happened when they were apart, and there was a gulf between them. Of course, that would have to be addressed.
But for now, Hermione had a basilisk fang to get.
Rabastan had spent his time after Hermione left fighting in the main courtyard. Although he didn't want to seriously hurt anyone, he was mostly just working to keep himself alive, putting up shield after shield.
Once the Dark Lord had left to "deal with" Snape, Rabastan spent the majority of his time looking for Nagini, but he didn't know what he would even do if he could find the snake. He was sure that the vicious snake would fight back, and he didn't know if...traditional methods would even kill the thing.
His best case scenario was to try to Avada it.
Unable to locate the reptile so far, though, he'd dodged at least ten of the "good guys" who were out to kill him, and had protected his brother at least once. He'd even saved a young man - a Weasley, he thought - from a falling wall. He wasn't sure why he did it at the time, but he couldn't linger on the thoughts too long during the battle.
He certainly wasn't planning on seeing Hermione, flanking Potter with the other Weasley, to come running back out into the fighting in the courtyard, carrying an extremely large fang. It must be a basilisk fang, Rabastan thought faintly.
What he wasn't expecting was Hermione to become separated from her friends very quickly, only to be cornered by Bellatrix. She looked shocked as Bellatrix shot a spell at her abdomen, which glowed bright white. Rabastan began running towards the two women, recognizing it as a spell to detect pregnancy, though it had been negative.
"Mudblood! I see you've made your decision to fight against us. Again." Bellatrix looked very unimpressed with Hermione. "And you got your wand back...how, curious."
Bellatrix turned to look at Rabastan, accusations in her eyes. Just when he thought that he would be able to get to Hermione, to keep her safe, he felt large arms wrap around him. He turned his head to see it was Rodolphus.
"I'll delight in killing you, mudblood. Though I should have done it months ago." Bellatrix cackled, wand trained on Hermione.
Rabastan began to struggle against his captor. "Stop, Dolph, let me go, I need to help her." He said, though his brother's arms were strong and unyielding against him.
He felt Rodolphus sigh. "She had her chance to conceive, but she hasn't fulfilled her role for the family yet. She has to be killed to dissolve the vows." Rodolphus said quietly into his ear. "You will get another chance, once she's gone."
"She hasn't conceived because we haven't tried to." Rabastan hissed back at his brother. He and Hermione had always used contraceptive charms, as Rabastan respected her wish to not be pregnant during the war. He knew that she would carry the next generation when she was ready.
He watched helplessly as Hermione traded curses with Bellatrix, but his sister-in-law was always a bit more lethal than his young bride. He felt Rodolphus shake his head behind him. "I am sorry, Rab. I know that you liked her. I liked her too, and I will be a little sad to see her go. But she's just a mudblood."
"I don't just like her, I love her." Rabastan hissed. Aiming his wand behind him, he sent a strong stinging hex at his brother. Rodolphus was surprised and let go of him enough so that he could wiggle around and face his brother. Before Rodolphus could react, Rabastan sent an incarcerous his way. "And she isn't a mudblood, she's my wife."
"But, I am family." Rodolphus said, upset to be betrayed by his brother.
Rabastan looked at his brother, helpless on the ground. "She is my family now." He then sent a disillusionment spell at his brother, watching him disappear. He felt all of his guilt and the weight of his resentment leave him. All the pressure he'd been feeling was gone.
Turning back to the dueling witches, Rabastan quickly felt his smile fall from his face. Recognizing Bellatrix's wand movements, she was about to send the killing curse at his sweet wife. "No!" He called, sending a protective shield at Hermione, right as Bellatrix cried out the curse.
He watched completely helplessly as the green light of the curse traveled across the courtyard towards Hermione's surprised face. He felt every ounce of love for her travel through his wand and into the shield.
His breath left him as the curse rebounded off of the shield, traveling back at breakneck speed towards Bellatrix. She was still cackling when the curse hit her body, leaving her face permanently in a disturbed smile when she died.
Rabastan could hear the shattered cry of his invisible brother from the ground where he was lying, and felt a stab of guilt run through him. He shook off the feeling though. Bellatrix had never truly been a part of the family, and she'd tried to kill Hermione. She would always take precedence over Bellatrix.
Leaving his brother on the ground, he ran the few paces away to wear Hermione was standing, wrapping her up in his arms. She sagged against him, the reality of being nearly dead racing through her. Rabastan grabbed the sides of her face so that he could look at her, wiping stray tears from her shocked face. "Please, let's go."
Hermione shook her head. "Not until it's over. I can't...I can't leave Harry."
Rabastan frowned, but knew that this was an argument that he could never win. "Have you found the snake yet?" He asked her, wanting more than anything to leave the fighting behind. He hadn't asked for this when he'd been told to join the Death Eaters by his father.
Hermione looked around, trying to catch a glimpse of either Harry or Ron. "No, but we'd gotten a basilisk fang to kill it with." She saw people fighting all over, but she didn't see any sign of her friends. "Circe, where did those two go?" She asked desperately. "I need to find them."
Before they could speak further, the giant wooden bridge off the side of Hogwarts began to collapse in a series of explosions, distracting them momentarily. Hermione watched as numerous people - likely all Death Eaters and Snatchers - fell to their deaths in the deep ravine below.
Next, Hermione heard Professor McGonagall calling for everyone to take cover inside the castle. It seemed that some giants had made their way into the courtyard, and were killing indiscriminately. Hermione tugged on Rabastan's sleeve. "Please, please come inside with me." She begged him, not wanting to see her husband get hurt.
He shook his head. "No! Are you crazy? They will kill me on sight." He told her, pointing to the spot where he'd been wounded by the Order earlier.
Hermione felt tears form in her eyes again, knowing that what he said was true. She still couldn't believe that Remus and Kingsley had hurt him so bad the first time. "I will protect you." She promised, her eyes not leaving his own. "I won't let anyone hurt you again."
Rabastan gave her a small smile, nodding to accept her promise. "Then go, find your friend, and I promise we will find each other when this is all over." His heart was aching at the thought of letting her go.
Hermione nodded, holding her tears back and wrapping her hands around his waist, pulling him against her body, wanting to feel him pressed against her at least one more time. He dipped his head so that his lips might meet hers, desperately holding her to him. He didn't want to let her go, but knew that he needed to.
"Go! Quickly, before I take you home to Jersey." Rabastan told her with a weak smile. He had half a mind to do just that, to keep her safe, but he knew that she would never forgive him for it.
Hermione bit her lip and nodded. She gave him one last longing look, before turning and running the other direction, towards the castle. Hermione was glad to see that most of the fighting was dying down, but all around her, she could see downed people. She was surrounded by so much death.
Merlin, she couldn't believe that Rabastan had killed Bellatrix to protect her. She knew that he told her that he loved her this morning, but she never could have imagined...she was glad though that that awful woman was finally gone and that Rabastan had stood up for himself for once. She'd seen the way that he'd taken on his own brother, and it filled her with admiration.
She was sure that she would take the time to tell him how much it meant to her once this was all over and she holed up with him for a week in their home. She couldn't wait for this all to be over.
Hermione dodged a toppling column on her right. She was nearly into the castle, and then she was sure she'd be reunited with the boys again. Running up the stairs, she ran into Neville. "Neville! So good to see you! Have you seen the boys? I seem to have lost them."
Neville wrapped his arms around her. "I wasn't sure if I was going to see you again. I haven't seen Harry or Ron, but have you seen Hannah Abbott?" He asked her.
Hermione shook her head. "I am sorry, Neville. I haven't seen her since I've been here."
"I have to ask her to be mine. She's the love of my life." Neville told her, a small smile on his face.
Hermione smiled at her friend, knowing how he felt for once in her life. She knew that she felt the same way about Rabastan. Before they could talk further though, she saw a flash of ginger. She'd finally found Harry and Ron again.